


Accidental Idol

by PrettyMissKitty



Category: Bandom, Emma - Jane Austen, K-pop, Original Work, Super Junior, 미남이시네요 | You're Beautiful
Genre: Angst, Bad Matchmaking, Band Fic, Bandom - Freeform, Brothers are Ridiculous, Concerts, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Gen, Idols, Inspired by Music, K-pop References, M/M, Matchmaking, Mistaken Identity, Mistaken for Being in a Relationship, Poor Life Choices, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, cuteness, music business, music shows
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-23
Updated: 2018-08-09
Packaged: 2019-03-23 00:59:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 83,588
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13776324
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PrettyMissKitty/pseuds/PrettyMissKitty
Summary: When Yuri's almost-idol of a brother gets hurt going above and beyond the line of duty, he needs his twin sister to fix everything. And by fix, he means forge. Yuri has to take her brother's place in a band she's never met, and successfully trick them, and the watching public, into thinking that she is her brother on stage, at home, and in practice. Things get a little crazy, but a little chaos is good for you, right? Maybe not. Yuri's nerves and patience are tried repeatedly as she is sucked deeper into the world of idols. Just how long will she be able to keep up this charade? And how long will she want to when she starts to fall hard for one of her brother's new band-mates?





	1. A Daring Debut

**Author's Note:**

> The plot basis follows the Kdrama very loosely, but it's close enough that I still consider it a fanfic, especially considering the influences of "Emma" by Jane Austen, though it's been touched by a bit of a 'Clueless' spin.  
> Also, the character Donghae is very strongly based off Lee Donghae of SuJu - and his primary solo is Beautiful from SS2: [ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jw4ckM52WwM ](Beautiful)
> 
> It's a really old fic I'm cross-posting from FF, from way back when I was still trying to figure out how Kpop could possibly function as an industry. It was pretty popular when I first posted it, so I thought I'd transfer it over here while peeps are waiting for me to get more done on the BatFam fic.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yuri arrives in Korea, spends the day relaxing and seeing the sights before attending her brother's big debut as a popstar. She winds up participating in that debut WAY more than she anticipated and it kicks off a spiral of events that leaves her with no good options and no escape.

Getting off the plane, Kim Yuri stretched her muscles tenderly. Sitting for twelve hours straight, even in first class, was killer. Her limbs were tingling horribly as she stiffly waddled through the airport terminal. By the time she'd gotten her bag, the feeling had mostly dissipated, but sitting in a cab was not by any means an appealing prospect. Instead, Yuri took her suitcase and set off into the beautiful morning cityscape Seoul provided.

Korea was beautiful; she had to admit it after only a few minutes of exploration. Until her brother had insisted she come visit, the appeal of the Asiatic country had never occurred to her. Yuri liked her cozy little home in Maryland. She'd never been one to seek international travels. To get her to fly all the way out to Korea, Jay'd had to arrange her travels, send a plane ticket and backstage concert passes to her doorstep, _and_ pay for nearly all of what her five star luxury hotel room cost. But now that she was here . . . she understood her brother's wanderlust a little better.

Still, it would have been nice if Jay had come home once or twice in the five years since he'd decided to go out and become a pop star. Why Korea, of all places, had struck Jay's fancy in that endeavor Yuri still didn't understand, but the capital city certainly was gorgeous enough to warrant an extended stay. And at least he'd kept in touch; a phone call every day or so, and an email with some pictures and a video at least every week.

Besides, though he'd left his baby sister all alone in the States, he'd actually accomplished what he set out to do. Jay had become an international Idol in a Korean band called QuaszauR. It was the weirdest name Yuri had ever heard of for a band, but the way they did the logo, in such a nearly magical way that the word could be read backwards, forwards, upside-down, _and_ in a mirror . . . she'd settled with the decision that it was pretty cool. And at least it wasn't an acronym; Yuri had seen bands that had acronymic names . . . QuaszauR was just fine the way it was.

Working her way around the city center, Yuri wandered through a pretty park, a cute shopping district, and a delightfully rambling residential area. Then, after buying some lunch and thanking her lucky stars that the Washington DC area had such a high population of Korean immigrants that the native language had been offered for all of her school mandated eight years of linguistic studies, Yuri checked into her hotel.

It was a nice hotel; marble floors and counters, chandeliers, legit bellboys, and complimentary chocolates and bubble-bath. The bubble-bath was a most welcome find for Yuri, whose muscles were still quite stiff. It was a quick five minutes of stowing her stuff, filling her ice-bucket, and setting up her iPod's speaker-set before she slipped into the hot water to while away the afternoon. She refused to give into her drooping eyelids until after she'd had a dinner of cup noodles from the room's microwave and eight pm had rolled around.

Though the adjustment was torturous, it would be better in the long run to get rid of the jet lag as quickly as possible. Once food and other touristy purchases were mixed into the equation, Yuri's small salary from working on various University projects could only afford this hotel for a few days, even when combined with the money Jay had for spending as provided by the JYG talent agency he worked for. She was not about to waste any of her time here with sleeping in.

Yuri allowed herself some leniency, however, setting her alarm for 9:30 am rather than the early morning of four hours before that she was used to from her busy school schedule. The morning saw her refreshed and starving; and after dressing up in the most touristy outfit she had packed herself, complete with knee high socks, over-sized shorts, and a fanny pack, Yuri trotted through the elegant halls to the dining room were a five star breakfast buffet awaited her.

Of course she took pictures of the spread.

She only had three full days in the city, which meant she had to be very thorough in her every endeavor. Today she was a camera-happy uber-tourist. Tonight was her brother's debut concert with QuaszauR; though he'd participated in smaller concerts he'd called fan-meetings, this was his first actual concert. To suit the situation, by tonight the uber-tourist would transform herself into super-chic popstar's-sister material. Tomorrow she hoped to be a normal teenager enjoying a day off with her brother as she toured Seoul like a local. Which left her last day here open for whatever situation arose.

For now, uber-tourist it was.

Within forty feet of leaving the hotel she found a life-size cut-out of Jay inside a smoothie shop. She couldn't resist the temptation. She took a picture of herself using her cell phone, all geeked up for the camera, beside the overly dramatic photo-face of her goof of a brother, and texted it to the boy in question. She got more than a few weird looks from the people in the shop; as expected, it was all part of the experience. To make up for her weirdness, Yuri bought a large strawberry smoothie.

She sipped it as she waited for Jay to reply to her text, talking at the image of him as if the photograph could answer in Jay's place. "You look ridiculous in that get-up, you know. If anyone believes you're ever that serious for more than forty seconds, I'll eat your next CD."

When Jay still hadn't replied by the time she finished her drink, she left the shop and tried calling him. Apparently, his phone wasn't even on. "Thanks a lot, Jay. You spring this concert on me so suddenly I had to let my professors know I wouldn't be able to help out at the psychology convention from my _plane,_ and now you won't pick up your phone! You're such a great big brother."

She supposed being an international idol sensation didn't leave him with much spare time, especially with his first full-scale concert coming up. "Ah well, I'll chew your ears out later for leaving me hanging like this. But first up: The 63 Building!"

Meanwhile, on the other side of the city, someone else was lamenting the status of Jay's cell phone. Well, actually, it was several some ones, and they weren't lamenting so much as outright panicking. They were the members of QuaszauR, the band Jay was supposed to be debuting with in less than six hours. And Jay was nowhere in sight. Kim YoungJae, the band's leader, was quiet and controlled, but anyone with eyes could see through the facade as he paced in circles backstage.

Everyone in the band, every one of the fourteen members, was worried.

By this time, Kim Jaebeom had been training with JYG Entertainment for four and a half years. To have been slotted into a band in that short a time was remarkable, but then again, Jaebeom himself was quite the remarkable singer. He'd been allocated to a band that already had an established fan-base and the reception he was receiving on the net wasn't the best. No one had ever seen him perform his solo, and that was a clincher for QuaszauR fans. Plenty of people could sing and dance and look nice on camera, the sign of a real artist was how well they did in real life. How well they did without having their bandmates there to cover up their mistakes was equally important, and that would be Jay's test tonight.

If Jay didn't show up for this concert, he would have to be cut from the QuaszauR line up in order to keep the fans from outright defaming him before he even got started. It was even possible that he'd have to transfer entertainment companies to prevent facing the ire of jilted fans if he managed to make it in another band. Either way, missing this concert was not an option that left his future shining.

YoungJae continued to pace. They couldn't put off the rehearsal any longer. He gave the order to warm up. His band complied reluctantly. Jaebeom had only been a part of their family for just over six months, but in that time they had all grown attached to him. No one wanted to see him face all of the bad press that would undoubtedly result from his absence.

"But where could he have gone?" Song Jinki spoke up as the group, waiting for the female contingent of their company to join them, took to the stage in the empty arena. It wouldn't remain empty for long, as fans would be flooding through the doors in four hours. The time the missing popstar had to get unmissing was running out fast.

Responding to Jinki's question, one that had been going through everyone's mind since early this morning, Kang Kihun said, "He was supposed to have gotten back from the promotions last night, but maybe something happened."

"No," YoungJae said with certainty. "We planned that too well; we knew about the tight schedule and made allowances. Something else has happened."

"I think I prefer thinking that his train is late," Hwan Donghae responded.

Agreeing completely, Park Chansung added, "That way it's okay that we can't do anything about it. He's still not answering his phone?"

Choi JongHyun nodded. "It's still turned off."

Lee SooHyun's face was grim as she overheard JongHyun's comment. Leading the five girls that were a part of QuaszauR onstage she tried to give a confident declaration, but even to her ears the words sounded flat, "Don't worry, I'm sure every thing's fine."

"Regardless," YoungJae said, "We have to rehearse. We'll plan for Jay being here, and if he for some reason isn't we'll move Donghae's solo to the end, just in case he comes in late; he'll need _Beautiful_ as a lead-in for his solo. That means YeongSaeng's will replace his in the beginning."

Park YeongSaeng nodded. Such a change up wouldn't impact the group dance rehearsal and it would give Jaebeom the highest chance of a successful debut.

SooHyun gave him a supporting smile. "Places then?" she asked, motioning to the rest of the band as YoungJae nodded. "And cue music," she added with a large gesture off stage.

Since the band's entrances were going to be through the special platforms littering the stage the positions they were to begin and end at were crucial. However as the crew was working below to ensure that the platforms would raise and lower properly during the real thing, they simply pretended to sink dramatically through the floor at the end of each of their parts. When they were all onstage together it wasn't a problem, but they had to get a little creative as they practiced strutting alone down the long runway of the stage when the crouching figures of their bandmates littered the path.

They managed however, and in two hours they wrapped up a successful rushed-rehearsal and made their way backstage again to get dressed. Then off to hair and make-up they filed. Fixing up the fifteen, currently fourteen, member band took a long time and was done assembly-line-style to move the process along as quickly as possible. As each member went through they were subject to watching their manager, a man not known for remaining calm in dire situations, gnawing at his fingernails like a chainsaw chewing through tree bark. It was not an image that instilled confidence within the viewers.

The concert was due to start in half an hour by now. The dull roar of the fans could be heard in every corner of the backstage area. And then it was time for final stretching and the short but nerve racking trek to the under-stage area where a sturdy platform was waiting to lift them to meet their fans. Manager Ma was practically in tears because of the tension.

Fifteen minutes to show time.

Last minute primping and tweaking of appearances as the oldest ones helped their dongsaengs.

Ten minutes.

Suddenly a shout was raised from the security staff and a stylishly dressed young person was ushered in. Jaebeom. Several hearts nearly stopped with relief. Then after a second of quiet revelry, the band sunk into heavy focus. This was a performance and they had to give the fans their best.

As they fell into their customary pre-concert Zen mode, Manager Ma's heart was still in high gear. He thanked the security staff and hauled the youngster into the now empty make-up room.

"I'm going to call the police!" Yuri shrieked the moment the door closed behind her and she pulled oxygen into her lungs. All she'd done was leave her seat for a quick trip to the refreshment stand, she'd still had ten minutes and a slush-puppy and nachos seemed called for. But as she'd harmlessly been walking along singing the solo she knew her brother was debuting tonight, these two massive security guards had jumped her; she'd never actually thought an _Asian_ could be massive, so much for that American stereotype cliché. They had dragged her who knows where, down at least three separate staircases, and now she was trapped in some low-lit room with a creeper who was probably some mafia boss or something.

He was certainly rubbing his hands together menacingly enough.

Actually, what was making Manager Ma wring his hands together was pure panic.

"Miss Kim?" He asked, "Kim Yuri? You must be her; you really do look just like your brother."

"What?" Yuri wasn't comprehending this at all.

"And you sound just like him too."

Yuri was too busy fishing through the pockets of the cargo pants she'd borrowed from her brother as her cell phone eluded her fingertips to understand anything the man was talking about. A button that automatically dialed 911 would be really useful right now she thought. Then her mind, as it was known to do in stressful situations, wandered to consider if 911 was even the emergency number in Korea.

Manager Ma merely continued rubbing his hands together and babbling aimlessly. Some of what he said formed into proper sentences, even if they didn't make much sense to Yuri. "Jay said you knew all of his songs backwards and forwards, the dances too. He said you're probably better at them than he is. He wasn't exaggerating, right? You know it all, you can do this, right?"

"Do what?"

"Perform of course! Didn't Jay explain things to you?"

Yuri's mind utterly blanked for a third of a second. "Perform?"

This got the already panicking manager into an absolute frenzy. He slipped some sort of wire around Yuri's neck and slid what looked like an old walkie-talkie into one of her pockets. As he struggled to quickly explain, he nervously rearranged the short, spiky locks of hair she'd styled into an edgy swirl around her face, "Jaebeom's been injured. He can't perform tonight. I'll explain it all later, but right now you have to go!"

"Go where?"

Manager Ma hauled on Yuri's arm, dragging her around for the umpteenth time that night. She was pushed into a crowd of dramatically posed people. She recognized them vaguely from the pictures Jay had emailed her over the past few months.

And then the floor began to move.

Yuri nearly collapsed as the vibrations rocked through her knees and realization jolted through her brain. In less than five seconds of heart pounding terror, Yuri was onstage.

The roaring crowd, the blinding lights, and the deep pounding of a beat rocking through her made the entire thing feel very dream-like. No, it was more like she was underwater, watching the action of people on the surface from within her own little world.

Around her, QuaszauR was feeding off the energy of the screaming crowd. The beat in the background wasn't particularly fast, but the excitement behind it increased the frenzy of the event of the band's arrival.

"Yo! Are you ready for this?" YoungJae shouted as the solitary beat began to blur with an overlay of melody.

"Come on, Lemme hear ya scream!" SooHyun added, waving her arms to encourage the fans. As if they needed any more provocation.

Arms were flung around Yuri's waist. On one side she could discern the face of Song Jinki, framed by gelled tendrils of bleach-blonde hair. On her other side was Heo KyuJeon, his hair made almost orange by the bleach that made his bandmate blonde and with portions teased out dramatically so as to look fuzzy and soften his angular features. They were bouncing along to the beat, filled with energy. On the other hand Yuri was amazed that she was still standing, so overwhelmed was she by the mass of people screaming at her, watching her every move as highlighted by the precise beams of the glaring spotlights.

It wasn't hard for the rest of QuaszauR to spot that the person they had taken for Jaebeom was panicking. They however couldn't tell a thing about Yuri's true identity, under the lights it was remarkable that they could recognize each other at all.

In addition to the supportive arms of Jinki and KyuJeon, Yuri received pats on the back and reassuring smiles from Park YeongSaeng, Kang Kihun, and Choi JongHyun. And then the real worrisome part began. The group split off in a well choreographed routine that left Yuri standing alone and obviously lost in the center of the stage.

The only good news was that she recognized this song. It was the first one Jay had shown her when he had first joined up with this band. Trying to remember to breathe, Yuri melded into the dance. Her moves were stiff and awkward with panic, but at least she wasn't just standing there anymore. Actually joining in to sing along was out of the question, she could hardly focus enough to keep enough air moving through her to stave off a fainting spell.

When the song ended, Yuri hoped that she could somehow find a way to escape, that they would go back down through that platform thing and she could get out and hide under the stage. She had no such luck as the band moved towards the back of the stage during the song's ending notes. With thirteen people gathered in a vaguely straight line at the end of the stage furthest from the bulk of the crowd, YoungJae and SooHyun stepped forward to make the customary thank you for coming, we hope you enjoy the concert speech. As they spoke the rest of the band covered their mics and tried to calm Yuri down.

They gave her little reassurances that did absolutely nothing to settle the hornet's nest writhing within her stomach. She felt like she was going to throw up.

And then the young man she recognized as one of her brother's most admired hyungs came up to her. "What did you do to your hair?" Hwan Donghae said nonchalantly, with a hand over his mic. "You look like a wet dog."

Something about the way he said it, or the way he was so at ease with the situation, or maybe just that he wore this smile that was sweet and silly at the same time, made Yuri go still. Her breathing almost returned to an acceptably regular level and a bit of the dizziness abated. Donghae ruffled her hair, flicking bits of it to and fro as he tried to salvage the style.

When he decided that nothing could be done, he pulled off his hat and set it down on her head at an angle. He stood back to admire his work for a moment, but then he turned back to the stage with a confident spin as YoungJae announced the premiere of his solo. The leader gave Donghae a pat on the shoulder as he headed back to join the group, and Donghae blew SooHyun a kiss as she followed along.

And then he posed with one hand outstretched and the other at his hip as he bowed his head. When the tinkling sound of a piano filtered through the speakers, Donghae didn't move. The mass of fans however recognized the sound and they erupted in a new bout of screaming that surpassed any volume of sound Yuri had ever before heard.

The celebration was for very good reason, Yuri soon discovered as a quick beat began to thunder under the piano's elegant melody. Donghae launched into a flurry of movement, an arrangement of precise movements that displayed perfect body control. If that wasn't enough to sustain the fans' frenzy, his voice was easily the best instrument Yuri had ever heard. " 'Cause you, you are my beautiful, my beautiful, oh~oh~ yeah . . . saranghanda miinah . . . "

Yuri knew this song, Jay had sung it for her. The combination of English and Korean, while not a new technique in songwriting, had become a perfected art in this song. It had been Yuri's favorite of the songs Jay had shown her, well favorite after her bias tied her heart to her brother's solo song. Jay however, hadn't been able to capture even half of the grandeur Donghae imparted on the melody.

It was sappy and cliché, but the only word Yuri could think of to explain how Donghae's voice moved effortlessly through the notes was _magical_. He sang through the lyrics, which though arranged in a particularly sweet manner were nothing revolutionary, impressing a deeper meaning into them. And something about his constant movement and the silly grin he wore made it feel like he really meant what he was saying. But the most magical thing about Donghae's performance was how he managed to make it seem like he was speaking directly to her; which clearly he wasn't, but regardless the thought that he could be made Yuri's heart race in a way much more pleasant than it had been only moments ago.

For his part, Donghae was simply enjoying the spotlight. He was a performer through and through and there was nothing he liked better than to give his fans a show they would scream about, even as they looked back on it weeks later. It was due to that reason that Donghae found his stunt with giving Jay his hat surprising. Normally, at the end of whatever solo piece he performed he flipped the ornament off and spun it around in a series of tricks that the audience never failed to appreciate. Now that Jaebeom had his hat however, he finished off with only a bow; the crowd didn't seem to mind very much.

As the music's end, Donghae straightened and began a speech. "Hey everyone; all you fans out there! Thank you for supporting us, you've taken us from JYG trainees to becoming the world's largest and most successful super-group! As you know, we have fourteen members and the voices of both ladies and gents contributing to our sound. And as you've been hearing for the past few weeks, we have one more member to introduce you to. Please show Kim Jaebeom as much support and kindness as you have the rest of us."

Donghae's formality ended there. "And don't be too harsh on him. Remember it's his first time singing in front of so many pretty girls."

With a wink he spun around to walk with an unhurried pace back to the group gathered at the far end of the stage. They were staying there purely for Jaebeom's benefit, it was a scary thing to stand alone in front of such a crowd, and Jay could use all of the moral support he could get.

Yuri didn't understand what was happening as Jinki and KyuJeon let go of her and someone, probably Park Chansung judging from his height, pushed her forward. Whoever had propelled her forward had pushed hard enough to send her stumbling out to meet Donghae as he strolled along the stage. He grabbed Yuri by the shoulders, made her stand up straight, and adjusted the angle of his hat on Jay's head. Something about the new singer made Donghae wants to take pains to show the fans that he was supported by established members, though he hadn't been particularly close to Jay during the past few months of his training.

He snapped a few times in front of Yuri's face, jolting her out of the daze created by his singing and by the sudden movement she'd taken onto center stage. "Yah!" bending down a bit to make his eyes level with hers, he threatened, "If you screw this up you're gonna be honorary maknae for a month. Jaebi could use the break." He grinned at her as the fans laughed behind him, and then in another moment he was gone, strolling the rest of the way down the stage with his thumbs hooked on his pockets.

And then the music started.

Jay's solo was an energetic and dramatic song. It fed perfectly off the mellow tone of Donghae's song. Whereas Donghae's was a whimsical tale of this-is-why-I-love-you, Jay's solo played out the details of his courtship, the sweetly extreme lengths he went to in order to gain the girl's favor. Pairing the songs for the concert like this not only went well in terms of musical aesthetics, but also for giving Jay the credit of having the universally loved Donghae as his opening act of sorts.

It would have been perfect, if indeed it had been Jay on the stage.

As it was, Yuri stared mutely and wide-eyed at the rolling mass of people in front of her, hidden just enough by the blinding lights to make them seem in even larger numbers than they really were. They were waiting with bated breath, which actually creeped Yuri out more than the screaming. She wasn't a popstar! She was a shower-singer! The only singing lessons she'd ever taken were in the fourth grade school chorus or when Jay had wanted a practice buddy.

She couldn't just stand there though!

Without another option presenting itself before her, Yuri squeaked out the first lines of Jay's song as the cue came up. During the short pause between the opening and the first verse Yuri took a deep breath. She was onstage now, and there was nothing she could do about it, save stop the show. That however would not give her brother a good reputation in the music world, even if the misunderstanding was cleared up eventually. The best thing she could do was to calm down and sing.

She thought about the calm excitement she'd felt during Donghae's solo, and remembered his words of encouragement and that goofy grin, she filled her lungs with enough air to adequately fuel her voice for the next series of lines. "Hey girl, come on, Listen up! Nae miinah, nae miinah, naege matchwo boringol non jal aljani ah~ . . ."

As she sang, Yuri gained a bit of confidence in herself. She wasn't any kind of professional, but at least she could be certain she wasn't completely screwing this up. Well, sorta. There was a dance that went with this song; she remembered right before the chorus . . . Jay had taught it to her through his webcam, along with the other dances he'd been learning with QuaszauR. It was a part of the show that she'd been utterly neglecting, which could not be good for her not-screwing-up quota.

To fix this, Yuri waited for the chorus to break out and right on her internally assigned cue she jumped into action. It was significantly harder to sing as she worked to remember the dance's choreography, both because of her split concentration and the sudden demand for her lungs to take in even _more_ air. She tossed out a few of the most demanding moves, like the series of back-flips towards the end, that she could do only on good days even when she wasn't singing, so that at least the show sounded nice. And seriously, how many acrobatic maneuvers did one song call for?

It wasn't until the song had ended and the entire group of singers behind her had suddenly popped up around her that Yuri realized sometime during her performance, the audience had broken back into raucous cheering. She received at least a dozen quiet, 'good work,' comments and so many pats on the back it began to hurt as she was shuffled within the coalescing group to the center platform they had all risen up on what felt like hours ago.

Up on stage as the rest sunk below, Choi JiEun asked, "So what do you guys think of our newest member? Pretty cool?"

Yuri couldn't see how they reacted, but she did hear a rise in the volume of screaming. Hopefully, that was good news . . .

Waiting for the band below stage, Manager Ma was in tears. Yuri had only seen the man twice in her life and both times he'd had watery eyes. Judging by the nonchalant reaction of the band at this display of relief, she assumed he was simply a very emotional person.

"How did it go?" he asked, taking Yuri's arm and towing her back into the empty make-up room they'd held their first conversation in. "Jay was right that you could sing, and you sounded _just_ like him, sorta, but how did the fans take it?"

"Well . . . I think," Yuri said, her head buzzing with the sudden release of stress that had flooded out of her system when she'd sunk out of sight of the audience.

She took another second to recover, but then she demanded, "Where's Jay?"

"Japan."

"WHAT?"

With a hurried glace around them, Manager Ma shushed Yuri quickly and whispered in a heavy torrent of pleading words, "He was there for a promotional, and I asked him to do an extra show, as a favor to me because I'm getting married and needed some extra money and he fell and hurt his leg a few days ago. There was no way he could perform tonight and since it was during a non-scheduled activity I was going to be fired if I tried to stop the concert, but Jay wouldn't let me tell the President, he said you could do the show for him . . . "

Yuri sighed heavily. Jay was dead meat walking . . . oh when she got her hands on him . . .

That's when it hit her. "My brother thinks I look like a guy?"

"It's not that, it's just your faces look so much the same that the camera images won't tip anyone off, and since the band was so desperate to find Jay that just about anyone could have passed for him . . . It was the best thing we could think of . . ." Manager Ma trailed off lamely.

Yuri was so furious for a minute that she felt her face turn purple. That Jay had planned to use her as a stand in was one thing, but that he hadn't told her about it first was another. And even though she did have short hair at the moment, and was wearing the dark cargo pants and leather jacket Jay had sent her so she could 'fit in' at the concert, she did NOT look anything like a guy! Heck, she didn't even think her face remotely resembled Jay's, but that was a different issue.

Also to be considered separately was Jay's current state.

To the great relief of Manager Ma, who had been watching her fury boil over inside her, Yuri softened dramatically and asked, "How hurt is Jay?"

"We're not really sure right now. His leg was causing him a lot of pain, and he stayed in Japan for tests, but this morning when I talked to him he seemed much better."

"His phone was off this morning," Yuri commented, perplexed.

Manager Ma nodded. "He didn't want any of his bandmates to be able to use the GPS to find him, or something crazy like that. He's staying in a hospital in Harajuku, Tokyo. I can give you the number to his room."

"Please do," Yuri said stiffly, thinking about what she was going to say to him.

"But first, you must get back onstage. _Love Story_ is up in a moment or two, and Jay has a solo verse in that song," Manager Ma stated.

Yuri paled. "I have to go back up there?"

"Of course, you have to finish the concert!"

"Jay!" Yuri yelled to the wind, back to being furious.

Manager Ma began to wonder if the charade would hold for the rest of the show. Yuri had a much more volatile temper than her brother, and even people who were looking to see Jay might notice that he'd suddenly become bipolar.

" _Love Story_ is the one where um . . . Lee SeungMi had that really high note in the bridge right? La-da-da-da-daaa-La-da-da-da-dum, for the opening to the chorus?"

"That's the one, you know it right? Jay said you knew all of them, and the dances."

"It doesn't have any back flips in it, right? I know them but there are just some things I can't do," Yuri explained. She had better get a baby-sister-of-the-year award for doing this, she wasn't one to take kindly to the spotlight, unlike Jay.

"You'll be fine," Manager Ma said, adding, "After _Love Story_ , Jay doesn't have another song for twenty minutes, some of the solos are going, so I'll give you Jay's number when you get back down here."

"Promise?"

"Yes, now go!"

Manager Ma pushed her out the door and once again Yuri was swept up by the tide of the band. Only half of the band sang for _Love Story_ , four of the girls and four of the boys, when Jay had been added in. As the platform rose, Yuri's mind blanked as to what she was expected to do. Seeing the huge crowd and hearing the endless roar brought all of her fear up all again.

Donghae appeared beside her, an arm slung loosely about her shoulder. "You're not quite cool enough for my hat," he said, flipping it off of Yuri's head and neatly onto his own. "You can have YeongSaeng's," he added, stealing the hat off of his friend and plopping it down with a uniquely Donghae flair.

As the fans laughed, YoungJae grumbled with a hand over his mic, "This is a concert Donghae, not a game of musical hats."

Once the music had started, and Donghae had given her a wink in response to the leader's discontent, all of Yuri's fear of having forgotten the song vanished. Though enjoyable was a word ill-applied to the situation, at least Yuri wasn't as terrified as she'd been during Jay's solo. And she was pleasantly surprised at her upper-body strength as she managed to catch, and not drop, Ahn MinJi when the choreography demanded the action. The honorary maknae was as light as her reputation led fans to believe, but Yuri was even less arm-strong than stage-brave.

The song finished without major mishap, Yuri even managed to belt out Jay's solo in a reasonably well performed way. And though her ears were ringing and her arms felt like lead weights, Yuri found herself moderately pleased as she walked off the platform to meet Manager Ma with her brother's contact information.

As she trotted off, QuaszauR's members, save for Kang Kihun and Lee SeungMi who were onstage performing their duet, mused at his oddness.

Jinki was most vocal, bored as he was without his fellow goof to amuse him while he wasn't needed. "Why does he keep running off like that? What could he possibly be doing?"

Park Chansung added, "He's being really weird. How many of you noticed how many steps he's missed tonight?"

"Oh, shove it," Donghae said scoffed, lounging on a collection of unused amps. "He's just nervous. He nearly forgot the words to his own song earlier!"

YeongSaeng was instantly suspicious. "Do you know something we don't?"

KyuJeon caught what his hyung meant instantly. "You have been really nice to him tonight, you must admit that."

This piqued Jinki's interest, as he ran through the concert in his mind, he too saw the strange attachment. "You _have_ been exceptionally friendly."

"It's not that unusual," JongHyun commented. "Donghae's a sucker for the shy ones, remember how he was with little SeungMi when she was first attached to QuaszauR?"

"And MinJi, and Jaebi, and even Dara, Jinki, and JiEun," YoungJae added.

Choi Jaejin, the group's true maknae who was subject to being called Jaebi by bandmates and fans alike, protested to this announcement, "Donghae-hyungnim never let _me_ wear his hat."

"I didn't know Donghae-ah ever let _anyone_ wear one of his hats," Lee SooHyun chided at the young man in question. "He's so protective of those things."

Donghae gave no indication of having heard. He'd pulled his hat down over his face after telling the band to drop the subject of Jay's strangeness and was proceeding to take, or at least was pretending to take, a catnap.

The subject turned from Donghae's strangeness back to Jaebeom's. More considerings on where he'd been loitering before the concert came up, and more on his strange behavior on stage and below, were voiced. No one could make any sense of it. As Kihun and SeungMi came below, and Dara, who hadn't joined in the conversation because she'd been preparing for her solo, went up, it was decided that someone ought to go interrogate the wandering popstar.

The band momentarily mourned the loss of Dara from their ranks, she was one of the boldest among them _and_ she was close enough to Jay to make her concern for his behavior more than the nosey curiosity of his other bandmates. Their next choice was Jinki, but he was already sobering up for his solo, which immediately followed Dara's. Their next option was MinJi, who was about as cunning as a wet kitten, but could act the part better than SeungMi, who would easily have lost a fight against the poor besodden feline. All of the other options would have resulted in Jay clamming up real quick, knowing that it wasn't simple concern that motivated their actions.

Besides, MinJi's next song wasn't for half an hour, more than enough time to use the last ten minutes of Jay's break to absorb information with time to spare so that she could relay what she learned to the rest of the band.

When MinJi arrived, walking as slow as she was to buy time to figure out what she would say to Jay to get him to talk, she discovered that she hadn't needed to bother. Jay was involved in a shouting match that could be heard easily from ten paces outside the door. It must have been on a cell phone or something because she could only hear half of the conversation.

"If you ever get out of the hospital I'm going to break every bone in your body," Jay was yelling. "No, this is not being violent. I'm very calm. You! You should be worried. Look at what you've done here! I'm missing an amazing summer project for this you know. And my friends, they must think I've fallen off the planet! You can't just drag someone around, _invite_ them places, and then not even be in the same _country_! Yes, I did think it was a bit weird, but I missed you. I thought we could hang out, have dinner or something. I still have the concert tickets, the passes are good for backstage at the next few too, aren't they? I've been waiting to see you, so you'd better show up, got it? This isn't funny! Fine, just get better and get back here; I hate thinking that you're cooped up in some Japanese hospital. Are the rooms like their hotels? So you do have some space, that's good. Oh, yeah, your favorite song is coming up, so I gotta go. Of course, I'm at the concert, where did you think I'd be? Hmmm, Thanks. I love you, too. Bye."

The eavesdropping SeungMi heard the beep of a cell phone disconnecting and jumped to think of an explanation for her presence outside the door as she heard Jay's heavy footsteps approaching.

"Jay-oppa!" MinJi called as innocently as possible just before the door swung open. She pretended to look surprised that he answered so quickly. He was certainly extremely surprised to see her there. For a moment, MinJi thought her ruse would fail, but as she continued, Jay appeared to relax and accept her explanation. "You need to get ready to go onstage."

"Yeah, I was just heading that way, thanks."

"No problem," MinJi said cutely, watching her bandmate go. She was waiting nervously for him to turn around and question her, Jay was usually very suspicious of everything, but he never paused in his stroll towards the rest of the group.

MinJi followed a cautious distance behind. She marveled at how small he seemed as compared to Chansung and JongHyun. Donghae looked nearly a head taller than him and even YeongSaeng was a hand-span higher. It must be a weird illusion cause by the hat, MinJi decided. It was the only explanation, because Jaebeom had definitely been the same height as Donghae during their last practice session. Hadn't he?

As the five ascended to perform their song, MinJi was assaulted with questions. Dara, who'd been unable to participate in the earlier musings, was especially interested. MinJi relayed every detail she could remember of the conversation. She couldn't make heads or tails of it, but SooHyun was nodding like all the puzzle pieces were falling into place. Most of the others were in the same straights as MinJi and after a bit of bowing down to the great wisdom of the female half of their dual leadership, they got SooHyun to explain herself.

"He has a girlfriend," she said simply. "It's obvious. That's why security found him just waiting around outside, he was waiting for her. And no wonder he's a bit off tonight, he must be worried sick about her, laid up in the hospital! Poor Guy."

Jealous, Jinki grumbled, "When on earth did that guy find time to get a girlfriend?"

JiEun shrugged. "I dunno, but SooHyun's right, that does make sense."

The rest of the break was spent in quiet contemplation. Whispers were spread between the members that had been onstage with Jay when SeungMi's information had been divulged as soon as they came down from the stage, well after Jay had gotten out of earshot that is. Nods of understanding made the rounds, but a few people, particularly Dara, were unconvinced.

Yuri was far too tired by this point to notice the way the band was talking about her, many members staring openly. And there was still another hour left in the concert, the latter half of which she was expected to spend the entire duration onstage, actively singing and dancing to the songs the entire group of fifteen were involved with. She was a zombie already, and that state of mind only got worse as the night wore on.

One benefit of this seeping tiredness, Yuri noted in an amused and very detached way, was that because she was so exhausted, she didn't have the energy to spare being nervous. The crowd screaming her name, along with those of the other members, didn't bother her at all anymore.

When at last the concert ended, Yuri blindly followed the band as they piled into waiting vans and were carted to the dormitory they called home. It wasn't a mansion of any sort, but in comparison to many of the dormitories allotted to other idols it was massive and very high end. Yuri noticed all of this, but she didn't process any of the information. She somehow managed to stumble over to a couch and crash down into relative comfort before blacking out completely.

The rest of the members briefly contemplated moving Jay to his bed, but decided against it on account of their own exhaustion.

It wasn't for several long hours that Yuri surfaced into awareness again. Her neck ached from being pinched at a weird angle against the arm of the couch, her every muscle throbbed with over-use, and worst of all she smelled to high heaven of sweat. She _needed_ a nice, hot shower.

It took a few minutes of quiet exploring for Yuri to locate the bathroom she thought best to use. Of the three within the massive dormitory, this one was the furthest away from the bedrooms, on the far side of the kitchen from them. And the bedrooms themselves were helpfully labeled with their owner's names. Better yet, as Jay had previously mentioned to Yuri, each member had a room, small as it was, to him or herself. It meant that Yuri could fish though Jay's clothes for some pajamas without having to worry about waking anyone.

Even with the odds on her side, she wasn't quite successful in ensuring that she didn't wake _anyone_. Donghae, whose room was closest to the kitchen partitioning the bathroom from the sleeping area, heard the shower start up. Since he was awake and thirsty anyway he slipped out of bed and made his way into the kitchen, dimly lit by a series of nightlights put in place to facilitate just such night-time outings.

He wasn't alone in his midnight craving for tea. Dara was already there, cradling a steaming mug close to her as it steeped. "Why are you up?" Donghae asked quietly. Dara was one of the heaviest sleepers in the group; she probably hadn't been woken by the shower.

"No reason, you?"

"Mr. squeaky clean couch potato there woke me up," Donghae replied ignoring her obvious perturbance for the moment as he poured himself some of the water Dara had heated up already.

Leaning back against the counter so that he was directly across the small room from Dara, Donghae waited. He knew what was bothering her, and that if he tired to bring it up in any way she would deny everything. He blew gently on his tea to help hasten its cooling process.

"It's just weird," Dara said eventually. "That Jay has a girlfriend."

"You're telling me! That guy is really some piece of work."

"I never thought he'd want one, you know?"

"I suppose it's natural that he would, but . . .

"But . . . ?" Dara prodded as Donghae paused to test the temperature of his tea.

Donghae drew out the tension just a bit longer, trying to make Dara squirm. "I just don't think that's what's going on. Jay's acting odd, but only tonight. I mean, don't you think we would have noticed something was up if he'd gotten a girlfriend? Jinki was right, when do any of us actually have time to date? Unless it's another JYG artist, we really don't actually _meet_ anyone, you know? If Jay was seeing someone, we'd be able to figure it out."

After a quiet moment Dara asked, "But then who's in the hospital that he's so worried about?"

"I dunno," Donghae replied with a shrug. "But I'm _sure_ it's not his girlfriend."

Dara sipped her tea. Her tolerance for heat was about the same as Donghae's, so he cautiously followed suit. Neither of them spoke until nearly half of their tea had been drained. Adjusting her grip on her mug, Dara said, "You're probably right."

"I usually am," Donghae said, satisfied. "See you in the morning, then," he told her, raising his mug in her direction before heading down the hall to his room. He leaned on his wall, just inside with the door slightly ajar, for another five minutes until Dara padded quietly to her room.

He was about to get back in bed when Jay came tiptoeing by from his late night shower. There was definitely something very strange about him tonight, Donghae thought. After a show, Jay was usually the bounciest of the lot, riding the high of the crowd and converting it directly into energy. But tonight, he was more exhausted than Donghae had ever seen him. Sure, this concert had been bigger and a lot longer than any of the others Jay had participated in, but that should have made him all the more hyper.

It was all very strange Donghae mused as he finished his tea and slipped into bed. Between the tea and his satisfaction at helping Dara get some rest, Donghae was able to fall asleep quickly and get up at his bright and early usual.


	2. Suspicions, Truths, and Getting to Work

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The plot thickens as Yuri gets dragged into a deeper hole.
> 
> And a few bandmates who just CAN'T let it go get dangerously close to the truth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know there are a LOT of names involved with this fic. 
> 
> I'm thinking of attaching a character cheat-sheet at the end of it.

Yuri found herself with a massive headache when she roused at nearly ten that morning. She could hear that a few of the others were already up. Jay had a bottle Tylenol on his bedside table, so Yuri was able to knock out at least one of her problems in relative ease. Solving the other was a bit trickier.

As she waited for her headache to ease, Yuri fished through her brother's _three_ closets. "Jeez, Jay, how many clothes do you have?"

The mass of clothes, as ridiculous as it was, provided Yuri with her best shot of getting out of the house unnoticed. Before she got dressed though, she called Manager Ma. He'd given her his cell phone number at the same time he'd handed over the one for Jay's hospital room. Now, she demanded a ride back to her hotel and didn't give him time to complain about the early hour. Though he may have been a late sleeper, Yuri felt like she'd already whiled away most of the day, and she had very few of them left in Korea.

Then, slipping into three large T-shirts, a leather jacket, baggy jeans that needed to be held up with suspenders, and a hat, Yuri cautiously slipped out of her brother's room. She kept her hat pulled low over her head as she shiftily skirted though the dormitory as fast she possibly could. Jinki called out to her just before she reached the door, but she ignored him and fled to the relative safety of the stairwell.

Jinki pouted, grumbling at the door as Yuri slammed it shut. Everyone in the common area took it as just another part of Jay being weird because of his sick girlfriend. Well, everyone save for Dara, Jaebi, YeongSaeng, and KyuJeon; three of whom Dara had spent the morning using Donghae's logic to convince. They were eager to get to the bottom of things, but they could be patient. If Jay wanted to skip breakfast, that was on his shoulders; there would be plenty of time to figure things out later.

Downstairs, Yuri waited outside in a neat little park like alcove for Manager Ma. It was a nice day, warm and sunny, with a slight breeze to keep things cool. Yuri wanted nothing more than to get back to her hotel, change out of the sweltering layers of fabric she was currently trapped in, and get out to explore the city where she had left off yesterday. Manager Ma drove up in a very boxy little car that looked much more like an old toaster than a motor vehicle. It fit his odd little personality well and contrasted neatly with his rather pudgy shape.

He was in a bright yellow T-shirt and a pair of studded red jeans that clashed utterly, and his hair was sticking out that the strangest angles as he approached Yuri. She had to laugh, to him rolling out of bed before noon was like a 2am wake-up call to any normal person. How he had managed to get here without crashing his little toaster was a mystery.

"Give me the keys; I'll drive us to the hotel."

"Yuri-ssi," the manager said slowly, half with sleep daze and half with trepidation.

Yuri held out her hand for the keys, a bright smile on her face. "Yeah? I won't hurt your car if that's the problem."

"It's not that." Manager Ma hesitated for another few seconds, fiddling with the hem of his hideous yellow shirt, before he said, "You can't go back yet, Yuri-ssi."

"What do you mean I can't go back?"

Yuri's hand, still outstretched for the keys, began to sink back to her side as a heavy feeling sank through her stomach. "Jay's hurt and in Japan, you have to be here in his place."

"I already did Jay's part in the concert, that's it right?"

"Unfortunately not."

Yuri sighed. She should have known things couldn't be resolved so easily, despite her brother's promises from last night. "But they're gonna find out I'm not Jay if I stay here any longer! Can't you just say he has family stuff to do today?"

"It's not that simple. QuaszauR is hosting a radio program in an hour, and Jay has to be there, it was scheduled months ago," Manager Ma explained.

"Tell them his father just had a heart attack and he needs to see him in the hospital," Yuri pressed, though her words were filled more with pleading than command.

Manager Ma sighed, and placed a comforting hand on Yuri's shoulder. "This industry doesn't work that way. Jay could still be dropped from the QuaszauR line on a moment's notice; there are plenty of JYG trainees willing to take his place."

"But that's not fair," Yuri wailed, wondering if she would get to spend any of her vacation actually on vacation.

"JYG treat's it's artists very well, we keep them healthy, living in nice places, eating good food, and we make sure they get an average of around six hours of sleep a night. Nothing on anyone's schedule stars before eight, except for very special cases. But we can't afford to let them have any additional free time, especially in a huge band like QuaszauR that has to fight hard for every new fan."

"Do I have to actually say anything on this radio show?"

"Probably not. You may be asked to sing a bit, but you can get away with saying that your throat's sore because it's not used to the strain of full concerts yet."

Yuri really, really, _really_ didn't want to do this, but Jay had worked so hard to get to where he was. This business was his dream, he'd been working towards this goal since his was four years old and he had gotten a plastic microphone with his Happy Meal. And the reason it was all in jeopardy was because he was a kind heart and had helped out a friend in need. Yuri couldn't say no to protecting her big brother's hard work . . . but she certainly could gripe about it.

"If Jay comes back from that hospital alive, I'm gonna wring his little neck," Yuri commented.

"Don't worry; he should be back in a few days."

"Don't you, "don't worry" me," Yuri snapped. "This is disproportionately _your_ fault too, you know. My brother's an idiot, but you're even worse. This girl you're marrying better be worth a _LOT._ "

Manager Ma winced at Yuri's accusations, but when his girlfriend was mentioned he softened in an instant. "Yuna's worth the world," he said dreamily, all moony-eyes and sap.

It was creepy to watch. Shaking her head, Yuri turned away from him. She pinched the bridge of her nose right between her eyes, feeling the return of her headache threatening at the edges of her stressed mind. How was she going to pay for an extended stay? Her suitcase was still in her hotel room, so it wasn't like she could just let the reservation run out. And when would she get the time to change her travel arrangements? There was no way she could afford to simply buy a new plane ticket, she'd need to get a reimbursement for her canceled flight . . . it was a logistical nightmare . . .

"Some one's up early."

Yuri looked up to see Hwan Donghae of all people strolling casually towards her. He was wearing a hoodie, ski cap, and dark California shades, but it could be no one but him. Yuri was surprised to see that a mob of fangirls hadn't found him; real-life super-stardom couldn't leave a guy as anonymous as it did in dramas. And Donghae was so handsome; he ought to have been recognizable regardless of his 'disguise'.

"Hello? I guess you aren't as awake as you look," Donghae commented as Jay sort of stared off into space before him. "Want some iced coffee? I've got mocha or two, a few lattes, a couple Americans, and then your plain old Brazilian roast."

For the first time, Yuri focused on what Donghae was carrying. The Starbucks logo was the most comforting thing she had seen in a long time. It was just so completely normal, like she was back in DC, that it made everything going on seem much easier to bear.

"Mocha, please," Yuri said, gratefully.

As Donghae handed the icy drink over, she had a moment of panic. The popstar was giving her the strangest look. But Jay liked coffee, right? He was the one who had first turned her on to the wonders of espresso and chocolate.

Jay may have liked coffee, mochas in particular, but Donghae couldn't recollect having ever heard the young American say _please_ before, at least not in such earnestness. And Yuri's next comment threw Donghae off even more. "Can I help you carry some of those?"

"Sure, here." He handed her one stack of coffees, keeping half for himself. Each was rather hefty, a caffeine run for a band of fifteen wasn't exactly a light load after all, but it wasn't too hard to carry up the stairs. Manager Ma had been left in his doe-eyed daze in the park; no one upstairs missed his presence.

They were too busy finishing up their breakfasts as a tall woman, Coordinator Kang Yuna as Yuri could guess from the way she was ordering the band around as Jay said only _she_ could, was barking commands. Yuna spied the returning Donghae and Jaebeom the moment the door opened. She was moderately surprised that Jinki had been telling the truth that Jay had woken up without half the band screaming his ears off to get him moving. She was more surprised with what the young man was wearing. "You're going to wear that to the show?" she asked critically as she helped to disperse the coffee amongst the band members clambering for it.

"There aren't going to be any cameras, right?"

"Only our self-cam," YeongSaeng said to Yuri's relief.

Yuna frowned, displeased with the sudden lack of stylish taste on Jay's part. Usually, he worked to look his best, even when all they were doing was going out to practice at JYG headquarters. Today he was clearly wearing three different shirts that, while not horribly clashing, certainly didn't fit his customary ultra-chic styling.

Yuna shrugged though, letting it slide. They were on a tight schedule and it was her job to make sure that things went off without a hitch. She'd heard about Jay's little vanishing act from last night, how he'd barely made it to the concert in time. He'd been under Ma's direction, so Yuna didn't particularly blame the popstar himself, but the band's manger was going to get an earful from her real soon. First though she had to get these fifteen crazies to the other side of town. "Alright, guys, time to go!"

She managed to herd them all with relative speed and organization down to the two black vans allotted by JYG for QuaszauR's use. YoungJae took the keys for one while Yuna kept the others. She sent seven of the young people after YoungJae and took the rest, practically shoving them along, into the nearest of the vans. Yuri was one of the ones subject to Yuna's manhandling. She tumbled into Chansung as her feet struggled to keep up with her upper body. He caught her easily, but only proceeded to further Yuna's method by lifting her off the ground and nearly tossing her into the back of the van. She ended up sitting with Chansung directly in front of her between JiEun and SeungMi, with Kihun on her left and Jaebi and KyuJeon on her right. Riding shotgun was Dara who was in control of the fancam that she kept swiveling from face to face, commanding, "Come on guys, say hi!"

Yuri did her best to imitate the excited waves and smiles of those around her while trying to keep her face from being directly filmed. While Manager Ma was convinced that her face looked exactly like her brother's, Yuri wasn't willing to put money on that bet. Jaebi kept poking at her side and making her jump, being ticklish was one thing she couldn't pretend not to be even though she knew Jay was not. Apparently no one had ever poked Jay before, because 'his' reaction was a mild and pleasant surprise, rather than a revealing tell. It became the group game and throughout the car-ride even Dara got in on it by using an umbrella to reach down the length of the car.

The game expanded further through QuaszauR when they loaded out of the vans and the others were exposed to this new trait of Jay's that had been uncovered. Jinki in particular was thrilled by the discovery and continued to prod Yuri all the way into the radio station's recording studio. The place was amazing, so many wires, and microphones, and pieces of tecnical equipment that Yuri couldn't even begin to guess the purpose of littered an entire floor of the sky scraper.

There was a round table set up with mics and headphones and water bottles for each of them within a soundstage the size of a conference room. After taking a quick look at the name cards set around the table Dara arranged the camera she was holding up on a filing cabinet to catch both leaders in full frame that also caught more than half of the rest. The ones left out were camera-happy enough that she was sure they'd get up at least once during the afternoon to give the fans a wave.

Yuri found herself seated beside KyuJeon, down one from SooHyun, with JiEun and SeungMi on her other side marking out the places between herself and YoungJae. Like it or not she was fully within the camera's viewfinder. To best counter this, Yuri pulled the brim of Jay's hat down low over her eyes before putting on her headphones as those around her were doing. Fortunately, this didn't strike anyone as particularly unusual. Donghae, who had apparently dressed in a nice vest, tie, and dress-shirt under his hoodie, left his hat on under the headphones, as did YeongSaeng on his right; and even Kihun beside YoungJae did the same.

The fact that she wasn't sticking out too obviously made Yuri relax a bit, but only a bit. Through the headphones she could hear the music currently playing across the airwaves the channel was broadcasting on. As she was adjusting the headphones for comfort, they were quite cozy, but tricky to settle over her hat, she could hear the MC of the previous show come on. He was apparently recording from another sound-stage, but he was well aware of QuaszauR's presence as he laughed into his microphone saying, "So, you know how I've been teasing you about a little visit from QuaszauR, right? Well, they just walked through the door and are going to be here all afternoon! As they get a bit settled, here's their latest hit _Hypnotic_ to wet your appetites as you wait. With latest information on everything music, this is Mickey Z signing off, so have a good day, and I'll see you all, right back here, tomorrow."

The vibe among QuaszauR's members was so relaxed as compared to what they were like at the concert. Yuri found herself fascinated with watching their interactions as they bobbed their heads and sung along a bit to their song. She could note things that Jay had never told her. Donghae was not only great friends with YeongSaeng, but he also joked constantly with Dara, who in turn treated SeungMi with an almost motherly affection. SeungMi was the sweetest girl Yuri could remember having ever met, and she and Jaebi were munch closer than she had thought they'd be, especially considering that SeungMi wasn't the female maknae. That role belonged to MinJi, though she acted anything like the youngest of the group. Her best friends were apparently JiEun and SooHyun. Chansung, JongHyun, and Kihun were quite close to each other, and at least one of the three was constantly saying something or other to YoungJae. KyuJeon and Jinki were besties with everyone from the way they jumped into random conversations that weren't directed anywhere near them. Jinki though, was quite worrisome to Yuri's cover, because he was obviously one of Jay's closest companions. However he wasn't the brightest crayon in the box and as easily distracted as he was, Yuri managed to keep him entertained with the stories Jay had created for himself while he had been in the States with his baby sister; stories that Jay probably wouldn't have told for himself.

Yuri was so engrossed in observing her brother's bandmates that she practically jumped out of her seat when the sound-stage door swung open and a crazy looking guy with orange hair and a Hawaiian T-shirt open over a QuaszauR fandom tank ducked in. "Good luck guys, I'm a huge fan," he said. It was the voice of Mickey Z.

"We'll do our best," YoungJae promised with a polite bob of his head.

Then Mickey Z whipped out a box of doughnuts. "I brought you some snacks, trust me you'll need them. I know you've done radio shows before, but interviews and full length broadcasts are a little different."

"Oh! That's great!" Jinki chirped, taking the box off of the MC's hands. He flipped the lid open and pulled out two chocolate ones before setting the box down in the center of the table. There were a _lot_ of doughnuts in it, Yuri hadn't known they came in bulk bundles . . . She wasn't complaining though and took a chocolate for herself as she tried to ignore YeongSaeng's comment that Jay could use all the help he could get because this was his _first_ radio show of any kind and the laughs the statement got from the others.

"Jaebeom," the MC said. "I saw the concert film from last night. Good Job, I didn't know you could hit that kind of note! I'll be interested to see how you do with these guys."

"Thank you, I'll do my best," Yuri replied in a squeak with a blush and a head bob.

And then Mickey Z had been kicked out by Yuna and the bright red _ON AIR_ sign lit up and suddenly YoungJae was talking. "Hey everyone! We are QuaszauR, and we are coming to you live from SMZ Studios!"

SooHyun took over. "We've got our newest member here and he's all fired up, if a bit shy, and we're all waiting to take your questions, so start sending them in now. Operators are standing by if you want to call in, or drop us a line on ."

"So let's get the ball rolling with the latest from SS501, this is _Love Ya_ ," JongHyun finished up, pressing the play button. The _ON AIR_ sign darkened and Yuri could hear the opening beat pound through her headphones. She pulled the ear bit off of one ear, as she saw the others do and waited.

Nothing happened.

At all.

There was a bit of quiet conversation, like there had been before they'd gone on the air. A couple of jokes and smiles, but nothing else, nothing note worthy.

Yuri finished her doughnut and with the lack of any better option presenting itself, she took another. One song ended and Donghae introduced the next. More quiet conversation. By Yuri's third doughnut, she understood why Mickey Z was the same measure around his belly as he was tall . . . she put her half eaten third down with a guilty glance at the amazing figures of the girls around her and grabbed her water bottle to sip on.

Things got a little more interesting when the Q&A session began but they only came during the five minute spurts between songs. Most of the questions were directed at the established members so Yuri got to learn a lot about her current companions. Jaebi was apparently left handed on Wednesdays . . . and superstitious enough to impose such a hefty task on himself. SeungMi hated oranges; their taste, their shape, their texture, their color, everything. KyuJeon's favorite movie was an American space-western. YeongSaeng had forty-two pairs of fuzzy slippers. Donghae honestly didn't know how many hats he owned . . .

Still the bulk of the afternoon was spent in soft, small scale conversations that were interesting to watch, but still really dull. Yuri was glad though, that she wasn't expected to do much. Jay had to admit that he'd been scared of the dark until he was nine and that if he _ever_ had to go camping again he'd have to break his leg to get out of it, and if it really came down to that he would do it without hesitation. Other than that her day was quiet, a relief to say the least.

She watched as YeongSaeng got up and walked around a bit, hovering behind KyuJeon who was leaned back over the swiveling chair with his arms flailing in the general direction of his Hyung. Kihun came to the side of the table that could be seen by the camera as well, and he and SooHyun made hilarious faces at it, even convincing KyuJeon to join in with them. Donghae came over too, though rather than hovering or playing directly to the camera, he'd produced a pack of small skittle like candies that he proceeded to toss into the mouths of waiting members. Jinki had to try three times to actually catch one. Dara not only caught hers the first time but she managed to use a folded piece of paper to swat one back to Donghae.

Dara didn't get up to wave to the camera, though she was usually one of the most excited to greet the fans. YoungJae usually had to make sure that shy SeungMi and Chansung got a little camera time, but today he was worrying about one of his most vocal members. Well, two of them. Jay was being unusually quiet too, and actually it appeared as though he was responsible for Dara's subdued behavior. She spent the afternoon staring at him, trying to pick him apart as he merely observed conversations rather than his customary, Jinki like participation in several of them at once. There were so many little things, the way he sat, the way he kept sipping at his water-bottle with a small smile, the way he watched everyone by moving his eyes rather than his head . . . a million little things that just didn't quite match up with his pretty face as she knew it.

The only thing that got the band truly interested was one of the last questions of the day. At least a thousand fans wanted to hear Jaebeom sing _I Believe_ , and they were all being very vocal about it, as Yuna related went she brought the latest list of requests in from the operators buzzing away at their work outside the sound-stage.

"Oh, come on!" Donghae prodded when Yuri tried out the excuse Manager Ma had given her. "Everyone has to sing it eventually, it's a classic! Besides, you did well enough with it on your audition tape and that was after a _long_ day of practice, much worse than the concert last night!"

As a new song needed to be introduced, Donghae took the honor from JongHyun, saying, "Here's an old favorite, if you don't know it you need to do a little research on your music history. Oh, and up next, I promise that we'll convince Jay to give you guys a bit of solo singing." His wink could be heard though the airwaves even by those who'd never heard him speak before.

"No really, the fans would definitely rather that I just pass on this one," Yuri tried to defend, at her next opportunity to talk without being heard by half the country.

Yuna came in then and, without a moment's consideration, stated, "The fans want to hear you sing. You are going to sing. Take a cough drop for your sore throat."

Yuri was panicking. She wasn't Jay, and though in a concert it was hard to hear, her voice was definitely different than her brother's, regardless of what Manager Ma had said about them. But there was another stumbling block; she didn't know the words to _I Believe_. She couldn't actually remember having heard it before. But she _must_ have her brother's audition tape in her email, right?

"Bathroom first?" she pleaded.

Yuna eyed the three empty water bottles resting in front of Jay and reluctantly said, "Make it quick."

Nodding, Yuri jumped up and tossed her headphones aside and bolted though the radio station's offices. She actually did need to use the restroom, but it was not the main reason for her haste. She lost at least ten seconds, trying to decide how deep her cover should be and if it was really worth using the men's bathroom, but then she pushed those thoughts aside and just kept her eyes down as she went in.

Fortunately, no one was in there and she could use her time in peace as she pulled out her cell phone and fished through her email for the needed video. She watched it three times in rapid succession to get a feel for the tune, thanking god she had saved it, and sent herself a text message with the lyrics on it. Hopefully, she could read them off her phone without raising too much suspicion.

Those hopes were soon dashed as Dara eyed her very closely when she got back. Even Jinki seemed very interested in her phone. It was Jaebi though that made her realize her mistake. "When'd you get that charm, I thought yours was green."

"Oh . . . uh . . . my, um, sister sent me this one."

"Oh, really?" SooHyun said with a slight giggle and a pointed glance at her peers. Yuri didn't notice as she was trying to get her headphones back on before the song playing came to an end. The rest of the group eyed her warily, wondering if it was the girlfriend, sister, or some other explanation altogether. And then it was time for her to sing.

YeongSaeng introduced her and started up the music. Her first notes were a bit rocky, mostly because she didn't know the opening words, as the only way she could get the rest of the song to fit on the tiny screen of her phone was to cut a few of them off. Jaebi and Jinki weren't exactly helpful to her concentration as they chirped little cheers into their mics at the pause between the first and second verses, but they did help her confidence a bit. Their joking manner helped relax her, showing that this was an environment where jokes were welcome as opposed to the high stress atmosphere of the concert.

It allowed her to sing the rest of the song quite decently, leaving her head only a bit buzzy as the final notes trailed off.

She indulged in another doughnut to celebrate her mild success. Due to her high from success at not-screwing-up-utterly, Yuri didn't notice that the way Dara was staring at her had changed. Within the hour the band had signed off and was getting ready to go, but Dara had other plans.

As the rest of the band was cleaning up, she grabbed Yuri's elbow and dragged her with surprising force outside and around a few corners. "We _have_ to talk," she stated as Yuri began to panic.

This trend of panic-relax-panic was not good for her, Yuri could tell. Her blood pressure was going to _skyrocket_ from this little international escapade. If she had a heart attack at 24, she'd blame Jay all the way to her early grave.

Yuri stared mutely at Dara, who took it as signal to continue. "That charm on your cell phone, Jay didn't get it from his sister. He got it _for_ her; I helped him pick it out. Now either you start explaining what's going on or I'm telling YoungJae that you aren't who you say you are."

For a moment Yuri didn't know what to feel. Terror, relief, somewhere between those two polar opposites was where Yuri's feelings lay. When Dara finished her little stare-down, outraged at the temerity of this mute impostor, she spun on her heel ready to march back to YoungJae.

Pressure on her elbow made her stop. "I'm Yuri, Jay's little sister. Jay's hurt, he's still in Japan. Things happened and this was the only thing the idiot could think of to make sure that no one's career was destroyed by his mistake, including his own."

Dara then encountered a similar emotional turmoil. Should she believe this girl? The charm didn't _prove_ she was Jay's sister after all . . . but on the other hand; Jay was hurt? How? When? "But why didn't he tell us? We're his family!"

"Heck, I'm his _blood_ relative _and_ his replacement, and he didn't even tell _me_ ," Yuri said, wondering if there was more to Dara's perceptiveness and concern than mere familial ties. Yuri herself had been furious when she'd figured things out, not teary eyed.

"How hurt is he?"

"Well, he says it's not too bad," Yuri promised. "And that he'll be back in a few days, but the doctors aren't completely sure yet."

"But why didn't he call?"

"I don't know."

Dara was struggling to reconcile this information in her mind. Jay had always been one to do his own thing, go off on his own for extra practice, to do another promotion, to sign a few more autographs . . . but he'd always called to let them know where he'd be and when he'd be back.

"Wait a second," Dara said slowly, thinking over Yuri's testimony. "He had to have told you, you _replaced_ him! At the concert . . . ?"

"When security hauled me down those stairs I thought I was being abducted by a mob boss!"

Thinking over everything that had happened in the past twenty-four hours, Dara had to admit it explained a lot. "So it's Jay in the hospital, and that's why you were so . . . um, no offence, bad at your own songs."

"None taken, I was honestly just glad that the crowd didn't start throwing food at me! I can't tell you how terrified I was when I realized we were on stage that first time!" Yuri explained, decidedly feeling relief over terror now. In fact she was so thrilled with the idea that someone else knew about her little charade that she was bold enough to ask, "About this, are you going to tell anyone?"

"Of course, I have to."

"But Jay will be kicked out of QuaszauR, and Manager Ma will lose his job as well, and I'll probably be blacklisted by the Korean government as a spy . . ."

"Why would they lose their positions at JYG?"

Yuri sighed; she was hoping that she wouldn't have to explain this bit, mostly because she still didn't completely understand it. "Apparently Jay was doing this extra show as a favor to the manager. Because he fell and couldn't perform, and it was Manager Ma's fault, the manager wouldn't be allowed to continue with the agency. And Jay's contract is still in wet ink . . . he could be dropped from the band on a moment's notice . . ."

Dara's mouth formed a perfect little 'o' and she stared hard at Yuri trying to ascertain the truth to her words. As it was all the truth Yuri knew, Dara could find no deception, but as to whether the outsider knew really anything about the situation . . . Dara couldn't account for.

"Please, Dara-ssi, my brother has worked so hard for this chance . . . I couldn't just let him lose his shot because he did a favor to the manager."

"Fine." Dara said quietly, "I won't tell anyone yet, except Jaebi. He was there with Jay and me when we bought that charm, he's an idiot, but eventually he'll remember."

Now, Yuri was completely overwhelmed with relief. "Thank you Dara-ssi, it's only for a few more days."

"And in those days we have a press conference and practice sessions to deal with, so you'd better be ready to work," Dara said, trying to think of another way Jay could have done this. She couldn't, admittedly, but that still didn't make his choice a good one. Even not calling sort of made sense, YoungJae or SooHyun would be obligated to tell the president, or at least Coordinator Yuna about what was going on, and if Yuri was right that would cost two people their livelihoods.

"I'll do my best, but I'm not Jay . . . Things may go downhill fast if I have to do too many acrobatic maneuvers," Yuri said, honestly.

"You do look just like him though," Dara said, standing back to look at her.

Yuri sighed. "What are you talking about? I'm at least a foot shorter, my face is much narrower, my eyes curl up more at the edges, and I have a _much_ smaller forehead; we don't look anything alike!"

With a shrug that told of perfectly understanding the Kim family's streak of stubbornness, Dara stated, "You're going to need my help, and probably Jaebi's too, if you want to pull this off."

"Thank you Dara-ssi! Jay thanks you too, trust me."

"It's just Dara, or you'll get caught before we get this started."

Yuri nodded as Dara led her back to the rest of the group. YoungJae demanded where they'd been, after all they had simply disappeared for a substantial bit of time. To Yuri's massive confusion, Dara said simply, "We saw the cat and started to chase it down. He got away, though."

The others of QuaszauR just nodded, they knew of the legendary SMZ cat. It was supposedly good luck to see it and better luck to catch it, but though he had been spotted many times, no SMZ guest had ever caught it. The explanation passed without question.

It also passed when Dara pulled Jay aside, whining, "Come on Jay, you promised you'd show Jaebi and me what choreography you're planning on using for your next solo!"

Though it was news to Jaebi, he gladly jumped on board. "I wanna see _Pretty Girl_! You won't do it in practice ever, come on, please?"

"Oh, fine," Yuri ad-libbed, trying to imitate her brother's cocky confidence. Dara gave a grin that could have passed for genuine pleasure or reassurance that Yuri was doing a good job and dragged the impersonator off with Jaebi following close at their heels.

The practice halls at JYG headquarters were only a few blocks away, so even YoungJae was fine with letting the young contingent of his band wander off there alone. A few of the other members hesitated, torn between wanting to see Jay's top-secret dance and using their limited free time to their own ends. It was Kihun that decided things for them. "I'm making dinner whether they're home to eat it or not," he said, adding, "They'll just have to microwave theirs."

Kihun's cooking was amazing; putting off seeing Jay's dance was an easy decision when such good food was the counter option.

Along the way to the practice hall though, Jaebi noticed that something was up. Mostly in that Dara had been so disheartened around Jay since the concert and now she was almost as buddy-buddy with him as she was with Donghae . . . and her attitude seemed similar to how she treated SeungMi . . . and then there was how Jay seemed so odd lately, with no exception in this case. Jaebi wasn't disrespectful enough to openly question his elders, but his confused pout was unmistakable under the scrutiny that the bright lights and three walls of mirrors provided.

"Jaebi, come here for a moment," Dara ordered. The maknae did as he was told, standing back to back with his hyung and looking at their reflection in the mirrors. To his surprise and massive confusion, he was only a hand-span shorter than the older boy.

"Yuri-ssi, stop standing up so straight, Jay always slouches," Dara commanded, and suddenly Jaebi and his hyung were the same height exactly.

"Yuri-ssi?" He questioned, unable to hold his tongue.

Dara nodded, it had been her plan to get Jaebi to question things himself before she explained it all, but she'd never thought he'd need _this_ much prodding to speak up. "This isn't Jay, it's his baby sister."

"What?"

Jaebi's blank look was so cute; Yuri found herself grinning even as she launched into the explanation for the second time that day.

When she finished, Dara added in a few clarifying details and said, "So, it's _our_ job to whip her into good enough shape to pass for Jay in practice. Any questions?"

"One: why exactly is this injury career threatening for two people?"

"I'm not entirely sure on that . . . but now that they've gotten this thing started if it's revealed now they'll be fired for sure, for lying to the President about this whole thing," Dara explained.

"Manager Ma and Jay aren't logistical geniuses, I don't think they saw how doing this would only make things worse for them," Yuri added.

Jaebi nodded, processing the information. He digested it much more quickly than Dara had, asking only one more question, "So Donghae-hyungnim was right? Jay doesn't have a girlfriend?"

"That I'm aware of Jay has never even _wanted_ a girlfriend, at least not seriously. He's just a chronic flirt," Yuri asserted.

The announcement went over well and soon Jaebi and Dara were completely absorbed in teaching Yuri the finer points of Jay's dances, especially the ones he hadn't shown her via webcam yet. The training session lasted for hours, and Yuri grew to appreciate her brother's astounding work ethic fairly quickly. She was about dried up before darkness had even fully settled, and she knew Jay had spent many long nights of practice in these rooms all alone. She only wished that she could match up to him.

When it was clear that Yuri was too tired for more training to be fruitful, Dara called the session to a stop. "We'll have to sneak out here again in the morning, you're doing well, but Jay was brought on because he could dance, as well as sing. Oh, and make sure that when you sing in practice you keep to Jay's usual octave, you have a very nice voice, but unless you make sure you only hit the notes that Jay can . . . "

"We'll all be in for it," Yuri finished. "Thanks for doing this guys."

"No problem, Jay's worked hard for this and we're his family now, we've got to help our own out," Jaebi said proudly. He liked being in on the secret, it made him feel special and like he really mattered to the group as more than just the maknae with the image of cuteness.

The trio headed home, slipping quietly into the dorm so as not to wake the others. They faced the company of only YeongSaeng, KyuJeon, and Donghae as the incoming three heated up some dinner and they chatted amiably while they ate. Donghae wasn't as openly curious as YeongSaeng and KyuJeon were as too Jay's odd behavior and why Dara and Jaebi suddenly seemed unconcerned by it, but he was certainly caught observing the young man closely on more than one occasion.

Plans were quietly confirmed for an early morning practice among the three concerned and then it was bedtime for everyone. Yuri was glad to slip under the covers. She was exhausted. It was better than last night, but still it had been a very long day. Yuri was quickly lulled into sleep by the familiar and long-missed smell of her brother that clung to his sheets.

In the morning, Yuri was up by seven, fully refreshed and ready for another intensive training session. As she made herself a bit of breakfast from dinner's leftovers while she waited for Dara and Jaebi, she heard voices coming down the hall that clearly didn't belong to them. Acting on pure adrenaline, Yuri grabbed her makeshift breakfast and ducked into the space under the kitchen's island just as Donghae and SeungMi walked in.

"It's just weird," SeungMi was saying to Donghae. "Jaebi's barely talking to me. He turned down going to the pet store this morning, to hang out with Jay and Dara!"

"That is odd," Donghae said. Jaebi loved spending the day with SeungMi and the adorable little creatures at the pet store. He'd always wanted a puppy or something, but dorm life wasn't good for animals and he'd had to make due visiting them on his days off. That he'd refused to go today was actually quite worrisome.

To soothe SeungMi's fears that Jay's odd behavior was contagious, Donghae took a relaxed stand point on the situation. "They're probably just amazed with Jay's new dance. Once they get the moves down he'll be back to normal."

His assertion only partially alleviated her concerns. What was she supposed to do now? Going alone to the pet store would be boring; and Jinki and KyuJeon, the only other people who'd want to go with her, wouldn't be up for hours yet!

Donghae was able to read as much on her face. Reaching into the refrigerator for a bottle of water, he suggested, "If you're bored you could come out with me."

SeungMi wrinkled her nose as Donghae adjusted his hoodie. "Jogging in this heat? Wearing a sweatshirt and a hat? No, thank you."

"Suit yourself," Donghae replied, sliding on his sunglasses and heading out the door. When he had left, SeungMi stood staring after him, unsure of what she should do now.

She decided to make herself some breakfast. SeungMi spent the next twenty minutes whipping something up as Yuri hid below the island's counter top. The hidden girl watched SeungMi's slim legs travel back and forth in front of her quickly chosen niche. Eventually, SeungMi finished making whatever it was she'd been busying herself with and trotted off to her bedroom. Yuri waited a moment to make sure that she'd gone before crawling out to finish her breakfast.

Ten minutes later she was joined by Jaebi, and then by Dara. The three left quickly after eating, not wanting to risk the others waking up. They warmed up as they walked across the quad to JYG headquarters, they needed all the practice time they could get, so being efficient was imperative.

Apparently, the dormitory had a back door, because when the trio opened the door to their practice room, SeungMi was waiting for them and Yuri was _sure_ that she hadn't gone out the front. She was sitting at the far end on the pile of mats used for practicing the gymnastic elements of the dances while the performers were still learning them. Her doe eyes were huge as she stared at her elders. "I'm sorry," she said. "It's just I . . ."

Dara sighed. "Well, I suppose we should tell you, it's not like Jaebi will be able to keep his mouth shut very long anyway, not when you're wearing a face like that. Yuri-ssi, go ahead."

Yuri nodded and, yet again, launched into the explanation. By now she had it down and could reasonably lay everything out in less than five minutes.

"Jay's . . . hurt?"

Wondering why that was the first question _everyone_ asked, herself included, Yuri nodded, "He'll be in Japan for at least another day. He said he'll give me a call soon."

"And you don't know any of Jay's new dances?"

"Not really," Yuri said sheepishly. "Dara and Jaebi have been trying to teach me . . . but I don't think I'm really getting them."

Dara jumped in, "Jay took just as long to learn them as you are, and they were _designed_ around his abilities. You're doing fine."

"But we are running out of time," Jaebi commented.

Dara clapped her hands together decisively. "Right, so now it's down to business. Yuri, remember what we did yesterday? I wanna see how much of it you can do without any reminders." She waited for Yuri to get ready and then hit play on _Hypnotic_ , watching her movements carefully.

"That wasn't too bad," SeungMi said when Yuri finished.

Agreeing, Dara added, "But Jay's usually spectacular."

"So, tell me what I'm doing wrong," Yuri said, a good sport all around. Jay was going to know hell for making her work this hard, but she would give it her best until he came back from Japan.

Dara, SeungMi, and Jaebi set to work right away. It was slow going because Jay had such a unique style that to imitate it was extremely difficult. It was the back flip, Jay's signature move, that had Yuri the most frustrated. She lost count of how many times she came crashing down onto the mats, which weren't half as soft as they seemed before you fell on them. Eventually though, she managed to achieve a level of moderate proficiency by four pm.

Considering how long they had worked for, Yuri felt that only becoming decent was quite close to utter failure. Their only break had been for lunch, and that only half an hour at a noodle shop across the street. Yuri was a perfectionist, like her brother in the way that anything she did would be done right. And she was also just like Jay in how she wanted to do things as best she could, _without_ inconveniencing others. Jay worked on his own for hours, and Yuri was more than tempted to follow suit. Only, she had much less stamina than Jay and was already so exhausted she could barely walk in a straight line.


	3. Practice Makes... Close-ish to Perfect

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yuri start to get the hang of this popstar thing.
> 
> The rest of the band gets a shift in their suspicions.
> 
> Donghae gets closer to his upsettingly unsettled little dongsaeng.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know the story's starting off kinda slow, but it's about to pick up pace pretty quickly.
> 
> I wrote it in the style of early 2010's K-dramas, so it drops you right into the plot, but then spends a while on slow character build before getting back to rapid-fire action and development.

Dara was the one who called the practice to a stop, much to Yuri's protests. The experienced popstar hushed the replacement. "We have a press conference in three hours. If the guest of honor at that conference falls asleep during it, we'll have more problems than the band possibly noticing that Jay's acting a little weird. You've been weird for two days now; no one will care if you sit quietly and answer questions with the shortest possible replies. However, people _will_ notice if you outright collapse."

"Dara's right. You've been weird enough to make more weirdness normal," SeungMi said, in what she hoped was a helpful way. It sounded odd to reason that weird had become normal and thus killing yourself for normal would be weird.

Jaebi suggested, "Right now what you should do is go home, take a shower, and then take a _nap_. Trust me it'll help."

"That's actually a great idea," Dara commented.

Jaebi stretched his arms out over his head. This had been a pretty light practice for him, seeing as the role of teacher had been split between the three pop stars and it hadn't been anything horribly intensive, unlike the body-sculpting training sessions they were occasionally subject to. "So, while _you're_ taking a nap . . . is anyone up for going to see Ga In?"

"I'm in!" SeungMi said immediately, looking forward to seeing the adorable dog's squished face. She added, "Should we go get KyuJeon?"

"And Jinki!" Jaebi added. The two paused for barely a second before racing out of the practice halls to harass their bandmates.

As Yuri and Dara followed at a slower pace, Dara eyed Yuri's figure. She walked in a much more delicate manner than Jay, and really she looked nothing like him now that Dara was paying that kind of attention to her, and there was the clincher point of gender. "You have to wrap your chest up for tonight," Dara stated suddenly.

Yuri blinked, trying to process the command. Her mind had been on the warm air and the sparkling city and how she should be heading home soon . . . "What?"

"When you're on your own and no one really gives you a second glance you can pass as a guy in one or two over-size T-shirts, but when you're with guys who are _actually_ guys and you're the center of attention . . . " Dara clarified, "Besides, under the lights tonight, you'll regret it if you wear more than one T-shirt. You can take a jacket, Jay loves that leather one you wore to the concert, but I doubt you'll suffer through wearing it for long."

"At least _someone_ thinks I don't look like a guy," Yuri said with a grin mixed with relief and worry. "I was starting to wonder about that from how well this whole faking-it thing has been going for me."

"It's still going to be a problem, even if you wrap yourself, but hopefully we can keep the questions to a minimum," Dara said as they neared the dorms. "So, shower, nap, and make sure you pick light clothes that, uh . . . suit you."

The others looked up as the two entered the dorm. Several of the members were missing from the common room, presumably with Jaebi and SeungMi at a nearby pet store. The rest went back to whatever they were doing, except for Chansung who called out, "Jay! You've become the most searched term on YouTube! The fans _love_ that you're ticklish." He chuckled at the end.

Kihun elbowed him, as they were sitting squished together on a single chair in front of a computer he was easily able to do so. "It's good that they like him, for whatever reason, but the _concert_ , not the car or our radio show, is the most watched video under Jay's name. Though the part where you sang _I Believe_ is a close second, Jay."

"You did good, kid," YoungJae said, from where he sat on the couch. "The fans really seem to like you."

SooHyun, having taken his moment of distraction to seize the television's remote control, added as she waved her prize out of YoungJae's reach, "Keep it up for tonight."

"I'll do my best," Yuri replied as she watched SeungMi squeeze onto the couch between a giggling MinJi and a despondent YoungJae, who stared forlornly at the remote in SooHyun's hand as she flipped through the channels.

Yuri went to Jay's room and went again though all of his clothes. She needed to figure out what to wear for the press conference. Dara had warned her about the heat of the lights, but she still needed something to cover up her shape. Yuri found the perfect solution in a backless cargo vest. It had enough pockets to hide anything odd about her shape, and if it were worn over only one cotton layer of T-shirt, it would be perfectly cool. Cool enough to even get away with wearing a stylized fedora with a brim that could cover the worst of the disparities between her face and Jay's. Her brother's watch was huge on her so she decided that it'd be best to 'forget' it when they left for the press conference.

With a red shirt, the black denim vest, and jeans to match, _and_ the suspenders Yuri needed to keep them up, she slunk out of her brother's room to the nearest bathroom, where she took a quick shower. After drying off, she headed back to Jay's room and laid down for a quick nap. All too soon, Dara was at her side, shaking her awake. Yuri found herself jealous of Dara for all of two seconds, the popstar was dressed in a gorgeous flirty black dress and Yuri wanted to wear such a thing to a public event like this. However she wasn't even going as a _girl_ , let alone one as pretty as Dara.

The moment soon passed and Yuri was back to the business of being her brother. Coordinator Yuna hurried them all out to the vans, where Manager Ma was waiting. He was actually wearing nice clothes, a casual suit jacket that almost fit him right and even a tie. Yuri began to wonder if she was under-dressed for the occasion, but she noted that besides the manager and Dara, only SooHyun and YoungJae were dressed up, and additionally only YeongSaeng, Donghae, and KyuJeon were in suits at all. For Donghae and YeongSaeng it was obviously their customary style choice, and even KyuJeon seemed perfectly accustomed to the casual sport coat. Kihun and Chansung were both dressed similarly to Yuri, chiq coats of some sort over a regular t-shirt, though Kihun was wearing more necklaces than Yuri owned. It was JiEun though that calmed Yuri's fears completely, because she was wearing cropped blue sweats and an off-the-shoulder knit poncho over a camisole, like she was going to the mall or something. If she, gorgeous as she was, could reasonably wear that, Jay could wear a vest and a T-shirt.

Coordinator Yuna didn't say anything to her as Yuri was shuffled into one of the vans so she assumed that this outfit was much more acceptable than the one she'd worn yesterday.

The conference hall was inside a hotel. Yuri had been expecting it to be in like a newspaper's headquarters or something, but no, it was a hotel's event room. Four stylists were responsible for handling the make-up of all fifteen members and it took them right up until the start of the conference to get everyone looking just so. When they were satisfied, Yuri followed at Dara's shoulder as they were lead out onto a makeshift stage with a long table set for the fifteen of them. There were nameplates for each member, so Yuri found herself torn from Dara's side. In fact she wasn't even able to sit off to one side of the stage where she could hide from the cameras; she was stuck right in the middle, between YoungJae and SooHyun. This press conference was about 'her' after all.

That statement hadn't really sunk in for Yuri until she sat down in front of a massive audience of reporters at the center of the table. This conference was about the addition of the new member, and the new member was the center of attention. It was only the smile of reassurance Yuri got from staring in terror at Dara that let her remain seated when the only thing she wanted to do was run from the stage as fast as she could. This is for Jay, she thought, for all of his hard work. Oh, she was going to _kill_ him when he came back from Japan.

Staring at the microphone placed before her, which was just like the ones marking out every seat at the table, Yuri began to tap her fingers nervously. There were just so many people staring at her, and she had to trick every single one of them into thinking she was her brother. Suddenly, Donghae appeared at her shoulder.

"I'm starting to regret nabbing this for you," he said with a laugh, adding, "It looks like what you need now is _anything_ but caffeine. Stop tapping, you'll look weak."

Yuri quit tapping instantly, though she couldn't keep herself completely still and her foot began to twitch. Fortunately it was beneath the tablecloth, and no one could see it.

"That's better," Donghae said with a nod. Then he handed over an iced mocha latte with a grin as he sipped his own. The smile that spread across Jay's face was extremely gratifying, even more so than when he'd first gotten SeungMi to smile onstage. Donghae had never thought that he would have needed to work with Jay like this, but while he was he saw no reason not to revel in his successes. "And your hat's not right," Donghae said, his grin spreading as he chuckled and tipped Jay's hat forward so that it played off his features better.

"Donghae, sit down," YoungJae commanded quietly.

Nodding, Donghae submitted to his leader's order, but first he gave Jay a pat on the back, saying, "Try not to make yourself look like an idiot."

As Donghae reached his seat, Manager Ma took the stage with a handheld mic and some note cards clutched in his hand. He looked as nervous as Yuri felt. Well, had felt. Somehow, Donghae had managed to calm her down. Now, she listened with interest as the manager thanked the reporters for coming and introduced leader YoungJae.

YoungJae thanked him as Ma shuffled off stage, and very professionally began his opening speech, "As you know, we've recently debuted our fifteenth member. Many people have questioned why we decided to add on yet another singer to our already large group. It's already hard enough to get to know us as individuals within such a large band, but really _that_ 's why we added Kim Jaebeom. We felt it pressing to even out our numbers so that we could split into three even subgroups, each with five members. Each sub-group will have a unique sound that will appeal to certain audiences, and they will be able to learn who we each are on the small scale. We are in no way splitting up, as many other groups have created subgroups for a similar purpose before us."

Here SooHyun took over, going into an explanation of the subgroups. QuaszauR Mellow was the first introduced, with each member standing as the female leader announced, "Leader Kim YoungJae, Kang Kihun, Song Jinki, Heo KyuJeon, and Choi Jaejin; mellow will be QuaszauR's ballad group, focusing on the slower songs and more intricate and technical vocal patterns." She went into more detail about the kind of songs to be expected from Mellow and the positions of each of the members in the group. When she had finished, the members were allowed to be seated again.

Following the same pattern, YoungJae introduced QuaszauR Sweet, the girl group that would tackle more upbeat songs than Mellow, but songs that still would have calm parts to them and minimal rap. Lee SooHyun would lead Choi JiEun, Lee SeungMi, Jung Dara, and Ahn MinJi in what essentially stood to be the all-around subgroup with songs that appealed to anyone.

SooHyun took the speech again, explaining the final group, QuaszauR Action. Action was the high octane group, with fast paced songs with lots of adrenaline running through them. There would be acrobatic dances and lots of rap and the complicated weaving of quick lyrics. Led by Choi JongHyun, the group consisted of Park Chansung, Hwan Donghae, Park YeongSaeng, and Kim Jaebeom. Yuri nearly forgot to stand when her brother's name was called, but the crisis was averted by a subtle movement from Dara who sat just on the other side of SooHyun.

After Action had been introduced and they were allowed to sit down again, YoungJae began to talk about the new EP, expected to come out in just over a month. "On _HeartQuake_ , there will be three songs we've already released, and three full band songs that are new. Additionally, there will be a song from each subgroup, _and_ new solo's by YeongSaeng, Donghae, and Jaebeom. We'll be releasing a video for the title song _HeartQuake_ , and for each of the Subgroups' first songs, though the ones for the subgroups will be released several months after the album is. Also, we are planning on releasing a behind-the-scenes kind of music video to Jaebeom's _Pretty Girl,_ which is the title of the new solo he is working on, composed by himself and Donghae. It's still being tweaked right now, so no previews will be released. Also, at the concert in three days, Jaebeom will debut new choreography for _Only For You_ , film from which, and from the practices leading up to it, will serve as his introductory video to the fans."

There YoungJae traded off again with SooHyun. She talked more about what would be included in the album, namely the pictures from an exclusive, yet to be taken, photo-shoot which wouldn't be released ever again in the foreseeable future. And then it was time for the band to answer questions. Yuri received the brunt of the questions, everything from her favorite food to her worst subject in school was asked about, well, Jay's aspects. The only question that gave her pause was one of the last ones she was asked, "Why did you come to be a singer with QuaszauR, since you were born in the US and all, and you weren't scouted there?"

She had to think hard for this one, to get into Jay's mentality. "I suppose it's because I've always loved to sing, so I was willing to work exceptionally hard to find the best way to become a professional. My mother was a singer, one who failed to make her living from her love. She discouraged me from going after my dream, as her career had failed. But I always fought with her about it and when she . . . gave up working to keep the family together like she had given up singing, I guess I took it as meaning that so long as I didn't give up, I could make it eventually. So I didn't give up. Korea's music industry had been on my radar from a young age, so when I managed to get away from home, it was the first place I came to try my luck." And then because she could, Yuri gave herself a little pat on the back, "Training with JYG Entertainment was the hardest thing I have ever done, even if it was worth all the hard work to make it into QuaszauR. I really could never have done it without my little sister, Yuri has been there all along, lending me moral support and encouragement. I owe her _sooo_ much, especially recently as I've had to tackle this concert. It was a huge step for me and she was right there to help me through it. She and my new QuaszauR family are really amazing people."

There were a few more questions, but none that made Yuri worry. And from the looks she managed to shoot Dara, Jaebi, and SeungMi in between them, she saw that they approved of her little joke. Then the questions shifted to the others, prying into the mysteries of the other's songs and lives. The questioning wasn't as intense as it had been for Yuri, but that was only to be expected. The early questions had been intended to get the press acquainted with the new member, Yuri was sure that the others had all gone through the same thing already.

Donghae faced a lot of questions about his upcoming solo, mostly because he refused to give any valid information on it. His answers were all vague and mysterious, only serving to heighten the reporters' curiosity. Even at the end of the conference, Donghae had managed to keep secret even the song's name.

"You haven't even told _us_ yet," JongHyun complained as they stepped off stage.

YeongSaeng snickered, saying, "It's because he hasn't written it yet, that's why he's been so mysterious."

Jinki was shocked. "What, really?"

"I have a month left to work on it," Donghae said casually.

"Three weeks," YeongSaeng corrected.

"Nearly a month, then," he amended.

"And that's when the album _comes out_ , you've only got _one_ week before we do the _final_ recordings," YeongSaeng added. Donghae just shrugged.

KyuJeon asked his with a hint of knowing behind his wide-eyes, "Have you even started working on it, yet?"

At this YeongSaeng laughed outright, and Donghae actually ducked his head a bit in something akin to shame. "Nope, I've been busy working with YeongSaeng on his solo, and on Jay's."

"You've written Jay's at this point, right?" YoungJae commented, with only a hint of worry in his voice. Donghae had never been one to work well with assigned deadlines, but he always managed to get everything done by the concert.

"Jay's is done, I finished his first. He just has to learn how to sing it now," Donghae said, back to full confidence. "And if I may say so, _Pretty Girl_ is a _great_ song. I'm actually kinda jealous that it's your solo, Jay, so you'd better do it well."

Yuri promised to do her best, and felt her terror rise for a moment as Donghae gave her a weird look. Soon the mood was dispelled by Dara as she flung an arm over each Yuri and Donghae, saying, "The next song you write, Donghae, had better be a solo for me!"

"You can write your own songs," Donghae complained. "Why do I have to do it for you?"

Dara pouted. "Jay can write his own songs, but you still wrote him _Pretty Girl_ , why can't you write me one?"

The good natured banter continued on the ride home. YeongSaeng and Yuri were in the unfortunate position of being squeezed in the back seat between the two. Yuri actually liked it. She joined in a few times as the argument progressed from Donghae's laziness to his obsession with hats, defending Donghae of course. Because of that Dara turned the tables and began picking at Jay's ticklishness, which meant that both YeongSaeng and Donghae began poking Yuri, Dara and each other like mad. From the seat in front of them, KyuJeon, SeungMi, and Jaebi watched, throwing out the occasional comment as they discussed who was winning the tickle war. From the front seat, JongHyun narrated the events to the driving YoungJae as he made sure his hand held camera caught the chaos from every angle.

When they arrived at the dorms, the energy of the group began to simmer down. It was late after all, and press conferences were always draining affairs. A quick supper and it was off to bed, though they could have stayed up talking for hours. They had practice early tomorrow and very few of the members were morning people.

Yuri went to bed right after Dara. She only felt the full force of her exhaustion when she curled up in Jay's bed for the night. It had been a _long_ day, but certainly it had been kinda fun too. She stretched out under the cool sheets, feeling her muscles slowly relax. Then pulling her knees back to her chest, she drifted off to sleep.

It was barely six when Yuri woke the next morning. Yet somehow, with only seven and a half hours of sleep, she felt more refreshed than she had in a long while. Her muscles were a bit stiff, and she was sore from her many falls the day before, but she couldn't remember having ever felt so nice the morning after such a killer workout.

The one thing she decided that she didn't like about Korea, Yuri noted as she quietly shuffled though the cabinets in QuaszauR's kitchen, was the severe lack of breakfasty foods. Seriously, how could a household of any sort have an entire kitchen void of cereal? No waffles, no pancake mix, no bacon . . . the only thing suitably breakfast like Yuri could find were eggs, and they would be an annoying production to whip up. With the morning practice scheduled for eight thirty, Yuri headed out try her luck looking for a nearby cafe. She took her cell phone, having made sure to give Dara, SeungMi, and Jaebi the number for it during their practice session the day before.

She borrowed her 'disguise' look from Donghae; hoodie, hat, and shades. Her main advantage was that she didn't actually look like Jay anyway, so as long as she didn't get caught _trying_ to hide her face, she could stand right next to her brother's picture and no one would give her a second glance. Fortunately for her, hats were stylish, the sun was bright, and the morning was cool enough to make a sweatshirt almost reasonable.

It wasn't too hard to find a neat little coffee house, and within ten minutes of ceding defeat in QuaszauR's dorm, Yuri sat with a mug of tea and giant chocolate chip muffin as she watched people milling about outside. She sent a voicemail to Manager Ma, asking him about what she should do with her stuff at the hotel, seeing as her check out time was supposed to be at noon that day. Then she sent her brother a string of text messages about how much trouble he was in for when he got back.

Her rant of messages containing exactly 160 characters was interrupted when he called her. She answered with a disbelieving grin. "You're up early."

"I turned my cell back on . . . for Manager Ma to text me the details about your performance as me," Jay said drowsily, adding, "It's not on vibrate."

"Oh," Yuri said, almost guilty.

Her feeling turned around when Jay asked, "So what is it you're texting away to me about?"

"I was just detailing how many little pieces I was going to cut you up into when you got back here," Yuri responded.

Jay laughed. "So how's it going over there? I saw the press conference footage, I just _love_ my baby sister, don't I?"

"Yes, Yuri has helped you make your dream come true," Yuri said with sweet sarcasm. "But things are going pretty well, I can't believe you survived the training for this. I'm dying just trying to keep my head down!"

"You seem to be doing fairly well, Manager Ma hasn't called me in a panic for six hours. It's a new record for him," Jay explained.

Yuri could easily see the manager clutching onto his cell phone in tears as he waited for Jay to pick up, it was just so _him_. "Yeah, but um . . . someone figured it out."

"Dara."

Jay's statement was absolute. Yuri could feel his voice strain a bit as he winced so far away. "Yeah, and she is pissed at you. But mostly worried, she's definitely worried. You should give her a call soon, and maybe she won't kill you."

"Do you have practice today?"

"Starts in half an hour," Yuri confirmed after checking the clock on her phone.

"Then I'd better call her now."

"Yeah, so get to it. Hmmm, Love you, bye," Yuri said slowly, listening to Jay's trepidation as he tried to drag out the time before Dara yelled at him. "Oh and get better, _soon_!"

"Early morning call to the hospital?"

"Hmm? Oh yeah that was . . . " Yuri blinked a few times as she stared into the silly fox-faced grin that could only be Donghae's, even behind huge California shades.

He'd sat down across the table from the not-so-incognito figure of Jaebeom just as he'd encouraged whoever it was that was in the hospital to do something and get better. The casual way Jay had said he loved the person on the line intrigued Donghae beyond measure. Jay didn't strike him as one to throw those words around lightly, and yet at the same time he was _sure_ it wasn't his girlfriend. Sister maybe? But she was safe and sound in the States . . . though, Jay usually had some sort of news on the girl, about what she was doing at that prestigious university she'd gotten into, and he was always spouting some nonsense or other about how she ought to be here in the music business too . . . His recent silence on the matter was odd, as was his attachment to the person in the Japanese hospital, and his behavior around the band . . .

Yuri sat in a panic as Donghae simply stared at her. As he was thinking through the possibilities, Yuri was backtracking through her conversation, wondering what exactly he had heard. It wasn't too bad . . . at worst he'd heard that Dara was angry . . . but Dara was the type to be easily angered, so hopefully he wouldn't think too much on it.

"You don't have to tell me, if you don't want to . . . but if you're worried about that person . . ." Donghae left the sentence unfinished, taking the approach he'd traditionally had the best luck with. By letting people tell in their own time, he was usually able to help much more than if he tried to pry.

"They're going to be fine . . . and here, in a few days, if all goes to plan," Yuri said, still in full out panic mode.

Eyeing the phone Jay was hurrying to stick back in his pocket, Donghae asked, "Do things often follow the plan where you're concerned?"

Yuri sighed, running her palm across the back of her neck in a gesture of discomfort she'd often seen Jay perform. "Not typically," she said with all the stress and strife of the past few days bleeding into her voice.

The strain didn't escape Donghae's notice. "Uh-huh," he said slowly, looking Jay over carefully. "Well, practice starts in about ten minutes, and you look like you're done with breakfast . . . wanna grab a coffee?"

"Oh, you read my mind!" Yuri was still concerned that Donghae had heard more than she'd have liked, but coffee seemed to be his status quo and that was where Yuri liked to be.

The pair walked up to the counter, ordering two iced mocha lattes and then heading out of the café. Donghae had been planning on getting one for himself anyway, that was the reason he'd entered the café to begin with. He'd only gotten sidetracked when he'd seen Jay in the corner.

Sipping on their icy drinks, Yuri and Donghae walked into the practice room where everyone was already assembled just in time to hear Manager Ma announce, "A few hours ago, Trainer Lee's water broke, apparently her baby girl decided today was a good birthday . . . she and her husband are currently at the hospital . . . and we don't know when she'll be back."

Manager Ma was fidgety and worried, but for once not in tears. It was close though, his eyes were moist, and his poor fingernails. The girl under Yuri's disguise cried out for a manicurist.

Related to Ma's distress, YoungJae stood and moved to the manager's side to address his band. "That means we have some time off," he said to celebratory cheers. Then he calmed the rabble, saying, "But not all day. I'll give you guys the afternoon, if SooHyun agrees with me, but first I want to check on a few things. Chansung, Kihun, and JongHyun, for _Spicy Sweet_ I think the choreography after the second repeat of the chorus isn't flowing right. I want to tweak it and tune it up for our next concert. And Donghae, we should see how you and YeongSaeng should fit together for _Beautiful,_ now that you won't be all alone on stage for it. And Jay, I think we should have you run through _Only for You_ , practice makes perfect, after all, and it'll help build your confidence up. SooHyun, do you want to add anything?"

"MinJi and JiEun's _Special_ feels a bit off to me, let's take a look at that too," she said, simply.

"Ladies first," Kihun said with a grin after YoungJae nodded his consent.

The two girls in question hopped off the rolled-up mats they'd been perched on, stretching out as YoungJae practically pushed Manager Ma out the door, and as Jaebi and SeungMi gathered up the bags strewn across the floor by the various members. Donghae and Yuri joined the group gathered around the mats. Yuri slipped in between Dara and SeungMi, trying to make herself as small as possible.

When the music started, Yuri focused her energy into watching their movements. It was that, or let her attention drift to the members staring at her as they wondered why Jay had been awake early enough to have coffee with Donghae. Manager Ma was plaintively standing outside the practice room's door, staring through the window like the puppy Ga In stared though the meshed steal door of his kennel

The dance was cute and elegant at the same time, capturing the unique vibe of the song itself. It complimented both girls very well, but SooHyun was right, there was something off about it.

"It still seems unbalanced," Donghae commented.

YoungJae nodded. "But what should we do to fix it?"

"We've tried adding in SeungMi," SooHyun mentioned. "It did help, but it still ..."

"I think it needs four, the singer in front for each part, two to either side, and then one behind," YeongSaeng said definitively.

KyuJeon agreed with a nod and a curious, "But who would be the fourth? Dara's not tall enough to offset JiEun's height, and SooHyun will have been constantly on stage for an hour by then!"

"I can handle another song, I won't have to sing after all," SooHyun said, thinking the proposition over. It certain would be a better show with four.

"I don't want you to push yourself too hard," YoungJae said.

"Says the person who's dancing back-up for half the solos," the female leader retorted with her arms crossed.

Kihun spoke up, "I agree with YoungJae. We could rearrange the song list."

"How do you think it should be done?" YoungJae asked.

"If YeongSaeng's solo went after the duet you and SooHyun have, and then mine, and _then_ hers . . . It would at least give her a break." Kihun knew it wasn't the optimal solution, the mix up affected the rest of the show in a way bordering detrimental.

There was a moment of quiet contemplation among the band. Then Yuri voiced a shaky suggestion, "What if instead of SeungMi and SooHyun, two of the guys went up?"

"Explain," YoungJae commanded with keen interest.

Yuri shrugged, trying imitate the relaxed way her bother announced his opinions. "It would get rid of SooHyun's problem, and it would give MinJi and JiEun someone to 'talk' to rather than just an imaginary guy."

"Knock a little fan-service around?" Donghae asked with a grin. "It would certainly be a crowd pleaser. And the lucky guys are . . . ?"

Her mind frantically scanning through the scattered memories of the concert, Yuri suggested, "YeongSaeng's free then, right? Or Chansung, or JongHyun, or Kihun? Height-wise, it'd probably be best with Chansung and JongHyun."

"That may just work," SooHyun said slowly, looking the two candidates over carefully. JiEun was shifting a bit on the balls of her feet, a reaction that Yuri reasoned could just mean she was bored with the discussion and wanted to get back to actually dancing. No one else was paying it attention, after all.

Donghae interjected, "I think JongHyun's too tall for MinJi though, and Chansung's too perfect against JiEun to have them trade."

"So who do think should replace him?" YeongSaeng asked. "You? I'm too short, especially when MinJi wears heels."

Yuri's eyes flicked to the maknae, even in flats she was remarkably tall. The top of her head was about level with YeongSaeng's at the moment, and in heels she'd be noticeably taller.

"YoungJae."

"He's on stage even more than SooHyun!" YeongSaeng laughed.

"Not if I take his part in Dara's solo."

YeongSaeng shook his head, accusing, "You just want to be on stage for _Kiss Kiss_."

Without a hint of remorse for being caught, Donghae replied, "Ulterior motives or not, it would free YoungJae up long enough for him to recover and dance with MinJi."

"You did choreograph _Kiss Kiss_ ," Chansung spoke up. "If anyone could replace YoungJae there, it'd be you."

"I like it," Jinki announced with a grin.

The young peanut gallery sitting around him, Jaebi, SeungMi, and KyuJeon, shouted their approval as well. From behind them, JongHyun said, "Besides, this way I'll have a nice long break between things. Usually, my songs are only separated by five minute intervals. It'll be nice to actually be able to sit down for once."

"Let's try it out," SooHyun said.

After a few minutes of quick stretches, Chansung and YoungJae joined MinJi and JiEun in front of the mirrors. When JiEun gave a nod, SooHyun flicked on the music. It was very easy to note the vast improvement in the song's stagemanship. There were a few kinks that needed to be worked out, now that there were guys involved. For starters, half the things JiEun and MinJi did with their hips were impossible for the guys to copy. And also, integrating them as almost props in the song's story line took a bit of tweaking in the choreography. Overall it wasn't anything major and from such small changes, the results were spectacular.

Nearly all of Jay's suspicious behavior over the past few days was dismissed by nearly all of the band members, the dancer was upholding the reputation he was brought on board for. Even if the promotions in Japan had gotten him a bit star-struck, or if he did in fact have a girlfriend, he was still and valued and valuable member of QuaszauR. "Good call, Jay," YoungJae praised as the last run through of _Special_ came to a successful end. "Your turn, warm up," the leader proceeded to command.

Yuri swallowed hard. She'd almost forgotten about the fact that she was expected to dance at this dance practice. Taking a deep breath, she ran through _Only for You_ in her head. Dara had helped her extensively with this one, the practice had been what was mainly responsible for the many bruises Yuri had from falling. There were four separate back flips in the stupid song, and Yuri was inexpressibly grateful to Dara for helping her learn them. She wasn't perfect, but hopefully no one would be watching to carefully.

Fortune was a fickle mistress and with all the other times Yuri had managed to scrape by on nothing more than luck and a smile, she was due for some sort of problem. Though she performed the dance better than she had during her entire practice with Dara, Jay's friends were still quite concerned about him. Chansung was still too shy around the newest member to mention anything; Jinki was too confused to consider that Jay might not be kidding; YeongSaeng and Donghae were each absorbed in their own thoughts; and that left JongHyun to ask, "Is your leg hurt, the right one? You seem to be favoring it a bit." It was partly true, but the only real explanation any of the group could come up with for why Jay was 'a bit' off was that he'd been run over by a tour bus.

Well, anyone who didn't know the _real_ reason. Dara, SeungMi, and Jaebi were ecstatic with Yuri's performance. She'd made some real progress in only two days. Of course it wasn't anywhere near perfect, but it was close enough to the spectacular norm of Jaebeom that it could pass as his ability while injured.

"Um, yeah," Yuri said, quickly to answer JongHyun with a reasonable response. "It doesn't really hurt, but it doesn't like the force exerted for the back flips."

"Has it hurt since the concert? You only did one on stage and it looked like an awkward landing," SooHyun commented with worry in her voice.

"Yeah, that's what happened," Yuri replied, feeling bad about lying to such a nice girl. SooHyun, and most of the others for that matter, were genuinely concerned about Jay's injury, and Yuri felt awful for not telling them the truth.

She consoled herself by thinking that the real Jay _did_ have an injured leg, so really it was just another part of her filling in for him.

"You should have told us," YoungJae reprimanded. "YeongSaeng, see what you can do. Chansung, Kihun, JongHyun, you're up."

As JongHyun and Kihun stood and began their stretches, YeongSaeng took Yuri over to a corner of the room away from the other bystanders. "Here, sit down," he said offering his bandmate a hand. He wasn't sure how worried about Jay he ought to be. Usually when people in this line of work didn't tell you about an injury it was because they were aware they were over-working themselves and ashamed, or embarrassed, or would rather the others didn't trouble themselves.

But Jay was being so casual about this, not at all defensive.

"Really, it only hurts when I try to do a back flip," Yuri promised. She didn't want to be found out as an imposter, but the worried look on YeongSaeng's face as he began to check the muscles in her leg for injury was heartbreaking.

"Is it the knee then?" At Jay's nod, YeongSaeng adjusted his ministrations, his well-trained fingers gingerly probing the joint for a clue as to what was causing the pain.

Yuri meanwhile was watching the three oldest members of QuaszauR practice. There was something a bit off with the dance. This time Yuri had no suggestions to offer. Between the rest of the band and a lot of trial and error, however, her input was unnecessary and the three managed to get their danced tweaked to near perfection in less than an hour. YeongSaeng hadn't been able to find any specific problems in her knee, to the surprise of few.

"And it's just when you try a back flip?" YoungJae asked.

Yuri shrugged. "It seems to be, I mean I haven't noticed it hurting any other time."

"Then lay off practicing them for a while," SooHyun ordered.

YoungJae agreed, "We'll see how you're feeling in two days, and then we'll see what you can do for the concert. Let's run though it a few more times, without the flips, just in case we have to do that for the show, we want to make sure you're ready."

Yuri nodded; she could do the dances without the back flips in an adequate imitation of Jay. At least according to Dara, she could. Yuri stretched out the leg YeongSaeng had basically massaged into a coma and, feeling the tingles of pins and needles run through its length, waited for the music to start.

"YeongSaeng, Donghae, warm up," SooHyun instructed before she hit play for Jay. "Oh and go grab a few water bottles, won't you?"

"Yes, ma'am," Donghae replied, lifting from his seat against a fold of mats. YeongSaeng joined him at the door and the pair headed out into the hall just as Jay's song began to pound through the speakers.

"He's being very strange," YeongSaeng commented immediately after the door clicked closed.

Donghae laughed. "And that's news this week how?"

"I didn't feel anything in his leg."

"You said as much to YoungJae."

YeongSaeng shook his head, emphasizing, "I didn't feel _anything_ ; no knots or kinks at all. None of what you'd expect from anyone in this business. It was like he hasn't been practicing for years."

This gave Donghae pause. "That is strange. He practices almost as much as I do, and he's almost as good too," he finished, joking to balance the gravity of the situation.

Suddenly, Manager Ma rushed up to them. He'd left his post at the door for a quick run to the bathroom, but now he could ask about the person responsible for the success of his future. "How's Jay doing?" he asked nervously, a bead of sweat dripping from his nose onto his constantly swirling hands.

Normally, they wouldn't pay his nerves any attention; it was Manager Ma after all, the man didn't have a reputation for being cool under even the pressures of everyday life.

But his interest in Jay, who was behaving like an entirely different person, made them wonder. "Did something happen in Japan?" YeongSaeng asked.

Ma nearly had a heart-attack, but fortunately his body was used to this kind of near-miss adrenaline shot and he was able to answer with his usual level of articulation, "Not really, but he did seem overwhelmed by it all. I don't think he was expecting to have so many fans before he even officially debuted."

"Uh-huh," Donghae said, suspicious, but not sure why. There wasn't anything he could think of to suspect.

Manager Ma pressed his question, "But Jay's doing well, right?"

"Not for him, YeongSaeng thinks he hurt his leg somehow," Donghae said dismissively.

"It should be fine in a few days, a week at most," YeongSaeng hurried to add when Manager Ma paled even beyond his usual sickly color.

"That's good to hear," Manager Ma mumbled as he began to wander off. "No need to worry so much."

Donghae decided to try a bit of prying, though it went against his usual M.O. "Is there a reason we ought to be worried?"

Manager Ma swiveled in place, his beady little eyes wide. "No, of course not! Jay is perfectly fine!"

Leaning over the man using his height and sly smile in a much more sinister manner than he ever did besides his acting for QuaszauR's _Hypnotic_ music video, Donghae asked again, "What happened in Japan?"

The manager squeaked, something between a half scream and a hiccup. "It's nothing! Don't bother looking into it, it'll just cause a hassle. Jay's fine!"

"Fine? His sister's, like, missing!" This voice belonged to Kwon SeungHyun, a solo artist by JYG that preferred to go by his stage name of Z.J. He was walking towards his usual practice room with a laptop tucked under his arm. If anyone would know what celebrity gossip was reaching the public, it was Z.J; he was constantly on sites like All-K-Pop-dot-com, via the computer ever-present at his side.

For that reason, no one questioned the information itself. YeongSaeng prodded into the details of the account, "Missing how?"

"The girl's name is Yuri, right? Well, she booked a flight to Korea a few days ago, and a hotel room. She checked in, and then she didn't come back. Her stuff wasn't in the room when the maids came after the second day," Z.J. elaborated with the expression of someone dishing a juicy secret while at the same time holding genuine concern for the parties involved. It was a look only he could pull off.

"Those netizens certainly do their homework . . . " Donghae mentioned, eyeing the computer like it was a magical object not to be trusted within ten feet of himself.

Z.J. laughed. "Don't worry, they haven't written anything but praise about you. Oh, and they've been tracking the China Tour – "

Without the usual reverence he bore his hyung, Donghae interrupted, "And no one has any idea where she is? Does Jay know about this?"

"I was gonna ask you that," Z.J. responded with a shrug.

As the interrogation had turned to focus on Z.J., Manager Ma had slipped away, as Donghae noticed when he tried to turn back to confront the man on the issue. He and YeongSaeng stared down the hall, searching for his retreating form. They were met with a less welcome sight, Jay trotting down the hall to meet them.

"What exactly takes so long about grabbing some water?" Jay asked when he made eye contact with the two.

From right behind him, Dara said, "YoungJae told us to come find you, make sure you weren't mugged or something. Oh, hey Z.J."

YeongSaeng and Donghae shared a look. It was likely that Jay knew his sister was missing, but just in case he didn't, it was best not to let Z.J. bring the subject up. He was a nice guy, but tact had never been his thing.

"We were just talking with the manager and then we met up with Z.J. and things just sort of dragged on, but we're getting there, we promise!" YeongSaeng announced, grabbing onto Donghae and spinning around to head in the proper direction.

"You guys should come too," Donghae said, grabbing Jay's arm and dragging him off with YeongSaeng's help. He was light enough that it wasn't really necessary for the pair to haul him away, but the fact that he latched onto Dara made him twice as difficult to maneuver.

They had almost reached the break room, where the three refrigerators held over a thousand water bottles and they would be out of Z.J.'s range, when the singer called, "Hey Jay, before you go, do you know where your sister is?"

YeongSaeng and Donghae froze, looking at Jay from the corners of their eyes. The reaction they saw was puzzlement; he clearly didn't know what Z.J. was talking about. This was _exactly_ what they had been hoping to avoid. Straining his neck to get a look at Z.J.'s face, Jay asked, "What do you mean?"

"According to my sources, Yuri was supposed to be in Seoul three days ago. She even checked into her hotel, but yesterday her stuff wasn't there, even though the reservation included today," Z.J. explained. "I'm curious, where is she?"

Yuri paled. She'd been told of this person by Jay. Z.J. was a solo singer with a weird attachment to his signature day-glow orange hobo-hat, and his sources were _always_ the definitive answer. Because Z.J. often knew more than the bands being gossiped about did, simply saying he must have gotten his facts mixed up would only make things even more suspicious.

YeongSaeng's grip on Jay's arm adjusted to keep him standing in case he passed out. Donghae too, moved his hand to better support his friend if things took a downward turn. He was very pale after all.

What neither of them noticed was that, behind them, Dara was just as suddenly ill as Jay. But what could she do? She couldn't give the secret away! And she couldn't think of any way to explain the situation. Dara still believed that Jay _had_ told Yuri _something_ about his plan; he couldn't have _really_ expected her to fly in blind. Because of that she'd never expected a situation like this one to come up, hiding Yuri's travel arrangements ought to have been a part of the plan!

Meanwhile, Yuri was thinking quickly. If she was replacing Jay, then why couldn't _Jay_ replace _her_? "She's with some friends of ours in Japan," Yuri said quickly, trying to hide how breathless she was.

"Really?" Z.J. asked, his thick eyebrows rising up under his hobo hat in suspicion. "Then why book the hotel here for so long?"

"It came with the flight, a three day, two night, special fare kinda thing," Yuri babbled, praying to every deity she'd ever heard of that what she was saying made sense. "We had lunch the day of the concert and the next day she packed up for Japan."

Z.J. gave her a hard stare, sending shivers of panic running though Yuri's stomach. Dara meanwhile was fairly impressed, the girl could think on her feet. YeongSaeng and Donghae were giving Yuri the same stare Z.J. was, but she didn't notice as her focus was on the one who'd initially asked the question.

After the longest three seconds of any of their lives, Z.J. shrugged. "Works for me, catch ya later!"

He disappeared off towards the practice rooms and the four members of QuaszauR all exhaled heavily and slipped into the break room. After they gathered up the water bottles, they headed back to their own practice room in a fraction of the time it had taken to come the other way. They returned to find Jinki, Jaebi, and KyuJeon practicing the last of the concert's partial-group songs.

They slipped in quietly, so as not to disturb the performers. Yuri and Dara moved to sit by SeungMi as YeongSaeng and Donghae rejoined Kihun, Chansung, and JongHyun with the rest of the group as they stretched out the muscles they were supposed to already have warmed up. YoungJae gave them all disapproving looks.

In whispers the news was spread between the group members. Yuri was in Japan, with some friends she shared with her brother. SooHyun reacted to the news with a satisfied smile. " _Friends_ ," she repeated pointedly with a glance in Jay's direction. "There was no promo pack, Yuri came to Seoul and heard from Jay about the girlfriend. That's why she rushed off to Japan, she's Jay's bedside substitute!"

"I wonder if Dara, SeungMi, and Jaebi know," JiEun commented, adding, "He's been so quiet with the rest of us, but look at how he is with them!"

Donghae hadn't noticed this too much before, having written it off as just one more thing that Jay was doing weirdly as of late. But now that it was mentioned, Jay did seem to be forming a small circle of confidants. "What if it's just Yuri that's in the hospital?" he asked, still certain that it wasn't a girlfriend that Jay was keeping secret.

SooHyun flatly refused to even acknowledge the possibility, MinJi and JiEun did the same and with force of majority against them, Chansung and JongHyun did too. Kihun had already been convinced by Donghae and YeongSaeng that something else was up, but as he hadn't any other explanation he chose to simply stay quiet.

As the main bulk of the band was discussing Yuri's possible romantic relations with the mysterious person in a Japanese hospital, the smaller contingent was discussing the mysterious person in question.

"So Jay did call you this morning? Good, he can follow directions," Yuri said with a nod that showed she had been severely doubting his ability to do so.

SeungMi wasn't sure whether to be excited or worried. "What did he say?"

"Sorry," Dara said with something resembling sarcasm in her voice. "Actually he sang _Sorry Sorry_ , and then apologized for real. He really hadn't wanted to make us worry, using Yuri as a replacement was as much for our benefit as his. He _really_ thought that we wouldn't notice and that he'd be back the day after the concert."

"Why isn't he back yet?" SeungMi asked with a pout, she was now more worried about him than she would have been if he'd explained the whole thing from the beginning. Then she jumped, her big brown eyes becoming perfectly round as she looked at Yuri. "Not that I don't like having you around . . . it's just."

"I'm worried about him, too," Yuri said with a small laugh. "Apparently the injury is much more serious than he thought. He still thinks that he should be back before the concert though, so we shouldn't worry too much."

As Yuri finished talking, and as a quick poll on who thought what as to what was going on was made by the other group, the song of the three in practice mode came to an end. They were pleased with how they had done in the two run-throughs they'd made since Donghae and YeongSaeng were first sent for water.

The two errant popstars stepped up to the plate right away, ready to make up for their earlier negligence. Even in practice the song made Yuri pause. _Beautiful_ was easily her favorite song of all time, it just flowed in such a wonderful way and Donghae's amazing voice filled her head entirely whenever he opened his mouth to sing.

And his dancing was certainly something spectacular to watch. The last time Yuri had heard this song, she'd been too panicked to really watch his movements. She'd noticed that he'd had perfect control over his every limb, but she hadn't been able to focus on the specific motions. The dance was a complicated series of difficult moves, but Donghae pulled them all off with ease. He even made it look fun.

YeongSaeng too, had mastered the dance to a level that allowed for it to appear delighting, even as it must've been exhausting. YeongSaeng only danced in a part of Donghae's solo, but it was a perfectly timed and coordinated bit that added to the show of the song very well. Yuri was spellbound as she watched them run through it a few times with YoungJae picking at every little mistake as revenge for taking so long with the water.

Donghae bore it with good humor; in fact he liked working on his moves like this. Knowing that he would give his best to the fans, and that they would like his performance as much as he liked the song he was performing, lifted his spirits. Here and there he tested out adding in bits of flare that would make the fans happy, choosing what worked and what didn't by how it felt to him and by how his bandmates reacted.

Jay's reactions were the most puzzling, though no more puzzling than everything else about Jay had been for the past few days. He was sort of in a state of zombification, staring transfixed at Donghae's back as the performer watched his audience in the mirror. Jay didn't seem to hear Dara as she tried to ask him a question, even when she shoved him, Jay just sort of fell over, rather than reply. Dara eventually gave up getting his attention and turned back to her conversation with Jaebi, but Donghae's eyes stayed on Jay. He didn't comment or really react in a particular manner to any of the little add-ins Donghae threw in, he just kept staring.

It was creepy, or at least it should have been. Donghae found that part the strangest of the little escapade. Jay was hardly blinking, and his attention was utterly cemented to Donghae and YeongSaeng. From anyone else, Donghae would have felt goose bumps rising on his shoulders. From this person, the strangely acting bandmate that was usually the first to bore after Jinki, Donghae found the attention almost exciting; like Jay was a particularly harsh dance instructor that Donghae was finally managing to please.

His satisfaction only continued to increase as the practice session wound to a close.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also, a character cheat-sheet has been added to the end.


	4. A Day Off and An Unfortunate Delay

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yuri bonds with Jay's bandmates when they're given an afternoon off, but she gets news from Japan that is far less heartening. And worse, another concert looms on the horizon.

YoungJae was grinning with leaderly satisfaction as the practice wrapped up for the day. He kept his voice stern, despite his obvious pride in his members, as he said, "Tomorrow, regardless of how Trainer is doing, we're going to have to work on the sub-group pieces for the concert. I know you know them backwards by now, but it's important that we do them well for their debut concert. With Jay having debuted in the last concert, now we need to show the fans that having him to make the sub-groups work is a good thing."

SooHyun stood, saying, "Now I don't know about you guys, but _I'm_ going shopping!"

MinJi and JiEun jumped up to join her instantly, looking expectantly at SeungMi and Dara. The younger of the two looked very torn, she obviously wanted to go with the girls, but she kept looking back to Jay with a worried expression. Dara refused to even glance at the others, knowing that she would cave if she looked away from her new friend for even a moment. Yuri wanted more than anything at that moment to go with them too; but how weird would it be for _Jay_ to suddenly enjoy a shopping day, when usually he ordered his clothes over the internet for his hatred of malls?

"Oh come on guys!" MinJi pleaded, latching on to SeungMi's arm. "We haven't had a girl's day in nearly a month!"

"And Dara," JiEun added. "You promised you'd help me pick out some outfits! You're my style savior, you can't not come!"

SooHyun nodded. "And Jaebi, we can't not bring Jaebi! I want to get him something, anything. He's just _sooo_ cute! Oh, and KyuJeon, you have to come too."

MinJi, strong for her weight and slight stature, was able to drag SeungMi and Jaebi up and away on her own. JiEun took Dara, and SooHyun pulled KyuJeon along, and just like that, Yuri was left again in panic mode, alone with the rest of the band.

YoungJae sighed as he watched them leave. He'd dismissed them all of five minutes ago and already practice was the furthest thing from their minds. "I'll be in the studio if anyone needs me," the leader said, heading out.

JongHyun waited a second, deciding, but then he stepped up, saying, "I'll come with you, I wanted to talk about what we're doing in terms of promotionals for _HeartQuake_ , outside of the concerts."

Pouting, Jinki asked, "You guys are working on a day off? That's no fun."

"That's why it's called work," YoungJae said as the pair walked out.

Jinki's pout remained in place as the leaders left, but soon a wide smile pushed it away. He jumped up, stretching like he hadn't stood in a week, and chirped, "So then, what should we do? I know! It's perfect!"

"And just what would 'it' be?" Chansung asked with more than a hint of trepidation in his voice. Jinki wasn't renowned for coming up with good ideas, and he was even less known for giving up on forcing his bandmates to participate in his follies.

"Explore the city! Jay hasn't really had much of a chance to just wander around, and we haven't been out for a long time either," Jinki explained. "It'll be so fun!"

"And you just happen to have six hoodies, hats, and pairs of sunglasses on you?" Donghae asked, though he quite liked the idea.

YeongSaeng supplied, "The wardrobe department does, it's just downstairs."

"And we are allowed to borrow whatever we need from there," Kihun mentioned with a sly grin. "So long as we return it, eventually."

After a pause of no more than half a second, the room erupted in motion as the band scrambled out the door, dragging Yuri along. She was really excited that they were going to explore Seoul, though she would have been happier if her brother had been there to show her around. It had been her plan all along to spend a day exploring the city with a popstar that lived there, so what if these weren't exactly the popstars she'd been thinking of at the time?

With that thought in her head, Yuri stopped dragging her feet and raced with the best of them down three flights of stairs, which were agreed via subliminal messaging to be a more exciting option than the elevator. Once in the right department, they dug into the wardrobes looking for just the right disguises.

YeongSaeng decided on a cape, much to the dismay of the others; they talked him out of the fluffy purple hat, but he'd fallen in love with the cape. Jinki took the hat off his hands, pairing it with and tweed overcoat that looked like it belonged in a Sherlock Holmes movie. Chansung found a sports coat with a Yankees logo on it, and he would have looked almost normal if he'd left giant heart sunglasses in the box they had wormed their way out of. It didn't help that he also wore a Red Sox baseball cap, and could not be convinced of the incongruity. Yuri and Kihun were dressed the most appropriately; a plain hoodie, Yuri's was white and Kihun's was orange, regular sunglasses, and plain old baseball caps, one red and one blue to match the lettering on their shirts. Donghae very carefully selected a striped tan flat cap and California shades to go with a tan overcoat that almost matched Jinki's, but Donghae's was stylish.

Donghae was the most easily recognizable of the bunch, his disguise making him even more attractive while preserving his unique style. Other than Yuri and Kihun, the group stood out more than they would have if they hadn't bothered to disguise themselves. This thought occurred to them all and affected not one as they headed out into the sunny Seoul afternoon.

Yuri had never had more fun in her life. They ran across the whole city, taking public transportation for the sake of it without any destination and getting off where they had gotten on. Using their cell phones they took hundreds of pictures, a few of which were emailed to celebrity gossip sites to the delight of their fans, many of whom went on the hunt to find their idols. Considering how they were dressed, it was remarkably difficult to find them.

None of the idols in question noticed the people hunting for them, as they were too busy rushing around. They moved inefficiently form place to place in a random order than involved a _lot_ of backtracking, not because they were trying to be stealthy, but because the more experienced members kept thinking of things Jay should see before they went home, and _none_ of their minds operated in the standard order of things. They ate lunch on the go, having bought little snacks all day rather than taking an actual meal.

By the end of the day they were all exhausted, but they had seen everything they could think of that Jay _needed_ to see. The stuff that was cool, but not vital to his Korean education could wait until next time. And he had certainly learned a lot about Korean snack food, they noted with satisfaction. Kihun was the most pleased with their dining option. "I didn't have to cook any of it!" he exclaimed when Yuri wondered about the reaction, adding, "I usually have to do all the cooking, because I'm the best at it. I actually don't want to go home just yet because I'm too tired to cook right now, and they'll be wanting dinner."

"I'll cook," Yuri said suddenly, an idea coming to her. It was the only thing that could make the day better.

Suspicious, Kihun asked, "You can cook?"

"Sort of, but this would be really good, trust me! It's just what a summer afternoon calls for," Yuri promised.

"Are you sure?" Jinki said worried.

"Yes, now show me where the nearest supermarket is!" Yuri demanded.

Donghae stared at her for a long moment. Then he gave in, standing up from the wall they had been lounging on during one of the few breaks they had taken throughout the day, saying, "You're not gonna let this go are you?"

"Nope," she replied immediately. "I want to eat an _American_ food for once, and Kihun deserves a break."

"I can't complain about that," Kihun said, joining Donghae and leading them all to the nearest store.

Inside, Yuri discovered that she could not figure out how this store was organized at all . . . She stared at the signs for a full minute trying to figure out where what she wanted would be when Jinki bumped into her with a shopping cart. "Get in!" he said with a grin. "You can tell us what you want and we'll navigate."

"That's ridiculous," Yuri retorted.

Donghae and Chansung gave each other a look and a few seconds later, Yuri found herself being hefted into the cart regardless of her wishes. "Now, where to?" Kihun asked as the other two forced her to settle into an almost-sitting position in the cart.

Other than making her feel like she was five years old, the cart was rather comfy, and Yuri knew it wasn't worth contesting, so she declared, "The first thing we need is bread."

An hour of craziness, running around in pointless circles, and massively enjoyable chaos later, and Yuri discovered that the guys could navigate the store even less than she could. But they eventually managed, after much spinning of the shopping cart, to get all of the materials Yuri required. None of the popstars could figure out what it was that she was intending to make with the ingredients, but at least they had found them. At the register, as the other four teamed up and played a dizzying round of Yuri-tennis with her shopping cart, Kihun paid for their purchase, using the JYG credit card supplied for just such grocery related occasions. Donghae had to help Yuri walk after words, as her ability to tell ground from sky had been severely dented by the tennis match. He didn't mind though, seeing as he'd enjoyed the game intensely and Jay was remarkably light to support as they walked back to the dorm with Kihun and Chansung carrying the bags.

By the time they walked through the door, Yuri was back to normal, the dizziness purged from her system. When she got inside her ears were assaulted with the whining cries of Jay's bandmates. "Kihun! We're starving!"

"I'm not cooking tonight," he announced.

"I am," Yuri said over the shouts of what and why the rest of the band let out. This was met with utter silence.

"You can cook?" JongHyun asked.

"Sorta . . . Jaebi, SeungMi, can you guys help me with some things?"

The two jumped up from their perches on the couch, bored with watching MinJi and KyuJeon playing videogames, and ever willing to help Jay's baby sister. "What do you need?" SeungMi asked.

Yuri handed her a bag of apples and gave Jaebi a few bunches of grapes. "Dice those," she commanded.

Kihun, YeongSaeng, and Donghae settled themselves at the breakfast bar, leaning over the counter as they watched Yuri flit about the kitchen. "So what are you making?" YeongSaeng asked as Yuri found the large mixing bowl she had seen while hunting for breakfast foods.

"Chicken salad sandwiches," Yuri announced with a smile.

"Sandwiches? That's what all of that is for?" Donghae exclaimed.

Yuri nodded, and Kihun mentioned, "That doesn't really count as cooking."

"Why not? It takes skill, I have to know just how much mayonnaise to put in, and there's dill, and the fruit to mix in . . . it's totally cooking," Yuri protested.

"But you have help," Kihun complained.

"So? I'm an overseer, every kitchen needs someone to give the orders," Yuri said, adding, "Haven't you ever just asked someone to help you out? They probably thought they'd get in the way of your epic Zen cooking vibe."

Kihun grumbled incoherently for a bit, but then he let the subject drop.

Twenty minutes later, Yuri had whipped up enough chicken salad to feed a small army, though if it would satisfy the army of idols eyeing the bowl suspiciously was something else entirely. Collecting herself four slices of bread on a paper plate, Yuri heaped two giant scoops of her gooey, favorite summertime food onto two of the pieces and announced, "I'm going outside; this just begging for a nighttime picnic!"

She hadn't pulled off the disguise she had worn all day, so she didn't hesitate to trot right outside to the small park in front of the JYG dorm building with her sandwiches and a bottle of Coke. At her heels followed Dara, Jaebi, and SeungMi. Slowly, QuaszauR members continued to trickle out into the deepening twilight until the entire band was present. Chansung had even brought out a portable set of iPod speakers, to set up a bit of mood music.

Happy summery songs filled the air around the park as they ate. Their conversation ranged from the results of the girl's shopping trip to the way the city should have special places for fireflies to live, because they couldn't be the only ones who would like to see them during evening picnics. Yuri was able to actually participate in the conversation, and for the first time since she had been mistaken for her brother, Yuri felt almost comfortable with her surroundings. She and Dara were even becoming good friends.

And then _Beautiful_ came on, and Yuri forgot what she was saying as she started to hum along. YeongSaeng threw a piece of his uneaten bread-crust at her. "Jay, you've been singing that song _all_ day!"

Donghae defended her, "Hey, it's a good song."

"You don't get an opinion on the subject, you wrote it," his friend retorted.

"And sing it, don't forget that," Donghae mentioned. "It has to be a pretty good song for the fans to demand it at _every_ concert."

"I like it," Dara said. Jaebi and SeungMi agreed with her, along with JiEun, MinJi, KyuJeon, and Jinki.

Kihun added, "And we all know Jay likes it."

"You should try the dance," Chansung announced. "You'd be good at it."

"Yeah, come on. Show us what you can do, Jay," Donghae seconded.

Yuri protested, in good humor rather than terror, "But I don't know the dance for _Beautiful_." Dara had mentioned in practice as she'd been staring mindlessly that Jay had only seen the full dance once or twice, so Yuri had no solid fear of being discovered for not knowing.

"We'll teach you!" YeongSaeng said suddenly, jumping up and grabbing onto her arm and trying to pull her up.

Yuri was still hesitant, she wasn't sure she could pick things up as quickly as Jay. She was the brains of the family, not the brawn; and she was traditionally quiet clumsy . . . but she had done fairly well with Dara, Jaebi, and SeungMi, and _Beautiful_ was easily her favorite song so knowing the dance would be awesome.

"Why not?" Yuri decided, letting herself be hauled into a standing position.

Donghae joined them, saying, "Alright then, but you'd better learn fast, I'm only doing this a few times."

"No back flips!" YoungJae warned, aware that if there was even a second to freestyle that would be Jay's go-to move.

He looked to Kihun, who was in control of the iPod. As the rest of the band cheered, Kihun pressed play and Donghae began to dance with YeongSaeng. At first Yuri watched in awe, the two were such amazing dancers that she couldn't spare the concentration to learn what they were doing. She had to actively think about how to perform each move and how to transition between them.

After only one run through, Donghae commanded, "Now, you try it with us."

Reluctantly Yuri moved to stand between them, YeongSaeng adjusted his part so that rather than complimenting Donghae's the two were the same, so as to not confuse Jay any more than necessary. Yuri's first try was disastrous, especially in the beginning, as she hadn't actually been trying to learn the steps at first during the last performance. Every move she made was late, other than the second and third chorus and the second half of the bridge.

The second round was better; she managed to hit all three choruses on time and the rest of the bridge. After a few more tries, YeongSaeng went back to doing his usual part, leaving Yuri to deal with the random bits where she was left alone in front. Doing the part she'd been doing before was hard enough, but adding in a bit of her own was ridiculously difficult for her. She ended up stealing bits of Jay's dances from his other songs, whatever she could think of that would fit.

Dara was certainly impressed. Yuri was picking the dance up just as fast as she had learned Jay's parts. And though her improvisation wasn't anything spectacular, Yuri was actively making sure not to throw anything in that Jay wouldn't do, and in that regard she was doing very well. SeungMi and Jaebi agreed quietly, careful to make sure their comments weren't overheard by the members that weren't in on the secret.

Donghae and YeongSaeng on the other hand were very confused. They, and Jinki, Chansung, and Kihun in particular of the bandmates, all _knew_ that Jay could do better, especially at the improv. Normally, it was a hassle to get him to stick to the choreography; he was always throwing in his own stuff. But here, he was sticking to the very base of Donghae's original _Beautiful_ choreography. It was all very strange. He was doing well, certainly, having picked up the dance after only a few trials, but Jay was usually much better.

By then end of the evening, Yuri was extremely proud of herself, and she knew every little twist in the dance and just where she should throw in some of Jay's other dance moves. It wasn't perfect by Jay's standards, perhaps, but she was more than pleased by it. Somehow, the music was eventually turned off, the paper plates were trashed, and the band filed back up to the dorm for a good night's rest. Tomorrow, they had practice.

Yuri was up bright and early, loving that she could sleep in 'till six thirty and still be one of the first people up. For breakfast she went back to the same café she'd eaten in yesterday, muffins really did make great breakfast food. She had trouble believing that Koreans genuinely enjoyed the soup stuff that consisted as breakfast in dramas. Sitting at the same table, it was open after all and it provided the best vantage point for watching the passers-by, Yuri pulled out her phone as she contemplated calling Jay.

Then she noticed she had an unread text message. It was from her brother, _Call me when you get this._

Yuri hit send right away, calling his cell from the screen of the text. It rang twice before she got a recording of a chipper woman's voice, _The person you are trying to reach is currently unavailable—_

Without waiting to finish the message, Yuri cut the connection and dialed Jay's hospital room. When he picked up with a drowsy, _Hello?_ , Yuri rebuked, " 'Call me when you get this'? Could you be any more cryptic?"

She was trying to keep her tone light, but beneath her sarcasm Yuri had a sinking feeling in her stomach.

"How's Dara taking the news?" Jay asked the instant he realized that it was his sister on the line.

"What no 'good morning, Yuri' first?" she asked with a laugh. "You must really like this girl."

"What are you talking about?" Jay said quickly, "She's my friend, it must have been a shock to learn that we lied to her . . . "

Yuri laughed again. "You know, SeungMi and Jaebi know too, but you're only worried about _Dara_. What if I said SeungMi flipped out and shaved off all of her hair like Brittney Spears?"

"She didn't," Jay said definitively. Though after a moment of silence, he added hesitantly, "Did she?"

"Of course not, you idiot," Yuri responded.

Grumbling about how Yuri was too mean to be a baby sister, Jay went on to reiterate, "So how _is_ Dara taking this? Is she still mad?"

"Actually, it seems like she's forgiven you for the most part. She's been helping me practice," Yuri explained. Hearing Jay sigh in relief, she added, "Is that the only reason you wanted me to call you?" She still didn't feel completely at ease, especially considering that Jay's cell phone was turned off again.

"There is something else," Jay admitted reluctantly. "This leg thing is worse than we thought, I'm gonna be stuck here for at least another week according to the doctors."

Yuri took a deep breath. She wasn't half as panicked as she had thought she'd be, probably because she'd been almost expecting the news when Jay had insisted on her call. Instead of worry about her situation, she was only concerned about her brother's health. "Do they know what's wrong?"

"Sort of . . . they said it was most likely something with long Latin name." Jay explained as best he could.

"That information is just _sooo_ useful," Yuri replied. "Because I can Google 'something with a long Latin name' and leg pain will come up right away . . ."

"Hey, I don't speak Latin! You can't blame me for not remembering the crazy words the doctors here throw around," Jay protested. "I barely even speak Japanese!"

"Just get better soon! We're worried about you."

"I'll do my best, trust me, I don't want to stay here any longer than I have too," Jay promised.

"Now I had better go talk to Dara about how we're gonna pull this off for another week," Yuri said, her thoughts beginning to turn to the upcoming concert in which she was now going to have to participate. "Love ya, bye."

With that she scarped down the rest of her muffin and bolted back to the dorm. She didn't notice in her haste that to get out of the café she'd had to brush past Donghae, who stared after Jay's rapidly retreating figure in confusion. As he shrugged it off and went to order a caramel frappechino, Yuri slipped back into QuaszauR's dorms and into Dara's bedroom.

The popstar was still sleeping, but she was easily woken and was wide-awake the moment Yuri told her the news. She dressed quickly as Yuri went to repeat the process with SeungMi and Jaebi. In twenty minutes the four of them were seated in a small circle on the practice room's floor.

"A week?" SeungMi asked more worried than Yuri had ever seen her.

"This isn't going to be easy," Jaebi agreed.

Yuri was almost afraid to ask. "What's in store for QuaszauR this week?"

"First up is the concert," Dara said. "You should be okay for that, especially as we have a few more days of practice. But then we have a few photo shoots, recording sessions, _and_ we start filming for the _HeartQuake_ music video."

Yuri's mouth formed into a perfect little 'o' without sound as she couldn't even begin to relate her shock.

Dara continued, "You sing well, and you look enough like him so that few people will notice the difference, but I'm really worried about Jay not being included at _all_ in his debut album! It just seems wrong."

"But what can we do about it?" Jaebi mentioned sadly.

SeungMi replied, "The best we can do is make sure Yuri's ready, and take things as they come."

Dara agreed, but quieted as a disturbance outside the practice room's door drew their attention. It was the rest of the band, led by Coordinator Yuna. When the woman spotted the four members collected on the floor she turned and shouted back, "Donghae-ssi, you were right, they're already here."

"Why do you always doubt me?" Donghae called back as they all made their way into the spacious room.

"YoungJae-ssi, is it alright if I borrow Jaebeom for a few minutes? It'll be quick, I promise," Yuna said.

YoungJae nodded, "Get him to warm up, will you?"

"Yessir," she said with a mock salute. "Come on, Jay."

More curious than worried, Yuri followed the coordinator to the break room. It was empty save for Manager Ma who was talking on his cell phone with a quiet nervousness that filled the room. It did not bode well.

"Oh you poor, poor darling," Yuna said once she had closed the door behind her. "I can't believe my fiancé would be so idiotic as to drag you into this. Don't worry about your stuff, it's safe and sound in my office."

Yuri's eyes widened and she fought to come up with an appropriate response. Meanwhile, Ma hung up his call with a loud beep and a sigh. "That was Jay, he says he has an MRI this afternoon, but for now all we can do is wait."

Yuna spun on him, admonishing him like a puppy that had peed on the new carpet. "How could you drag such a sweet girl into this mess? Do you realize how much worse you've made things? You not only put your job at stake, and Jay's, but now Dara, SeungMi, and Jaebi's too! I'm assuming that was why they were with you this morning?" the coordinator added with a look at Yuri.

"They found out?" Ma was in disbelief.

"Of course they found out! She looks nothing like him! I would hope that Dara knows the man she fell in love with from his sister!"

"But, honey, it was supposed to be just for the concert, no one noticed at the concert," Ma pleaded.

"Honey?" Yuri asked. " _This_ is the Yuna you're getting married to?"

Manager Ma nodded, his eyes going unfocused while he thought about it dreamily. Yuna nodded, her lips pursed with a mix of pleasure and annoyance. She held out her left hand to display a sparkling diamond ring that she was both very proud of and very angry about. "And this is what he needed a bit of extra money for . . . he couldn't have just waited another month, and then none of this would have happened."

"But it has happened, and all we can do is deal with it," Yuri said, glad that someone else thought the two boys had been completely idiotic for putting her through this. "And apparently we have recording sessions for the new album this week? How can we deal with this? Jay's not even going to be on his debut album at this rate!"

Yuna sighed. "As long as no one notices that he's not in it, there won't be any problems."

"But it's the official debut album!"

Manager Ma spoke up with his voice flipping about nervously as he fought the urge to swallow repeatedly. "Don't worry, it's not the _official_ official recordings. It's just for the back-up copies, used in the headsets at concerts and things," he promised.

Yuri missed the aggravated look Yuna sent her fiancé due to her own scrutiny of his face. To Yuna's trained eye, it was easy to see the Ma was lying, but Yuri had no such experience and was forced to accept what he said as truth. Yuna disliked lying, especially as Yuri seemed like a nice girl, but if this would help relieve some of the stress she must be feeling, a little white lie was a worthy price.

"Really?"

"Of course! The album is set to come out in three weeks, do you really think we would wait so long to actually record it?"

Still a bit suspicious, Yuri said, "I suppose not . . . then Jay's not _really_ going to be missed, right?"

"You'll do fine being him, it's worked this long, hasn't it?"

Yuri took a deep breath and said, "I guess."

"Good girl!" Ma exclaimed. Then he moved to give her shoulders a brusque massage like he was an athletic coach or something saying, "Now all you have to do is get back to practice and not screw up!"

With those comforting words of advice, Manager Ma pushed Yuri back down the hall and into the practice room. All Yuri had missed was the little warm up period and YoungJae explaining that because they were going to work on their sub-group songs, they were breaking into three separate practice rooms so that each group could use their time efficiently. After lunch they would meet backup for the group rehearsals, and any solo practice they needed.

Dara, Jaebi, and SeungMi were a bit worried about leaving Yuri to fend for herself with the guys of QuaszauR Action, but they didn't need to be. Yuri was more focused on the practice than any of the guys could remember seeing in Jay, and at the same time she remained lighthearted enough to joke around with them. There was still something definitively not-Jay about him, Donghae and YeongSaeng discussed quietly as he and Jinki messed around with JongHyun, but neither could quiet figure out what it was.

Lunch was the usual mess of joking, mini food fights, and texting the people right next to you. Jay had apparently left his phone at home, because Donghae, YeongSaeng, and Jinki kept getting messages that his phone was turned off and Jay never moved to get it out of his bag, though he understood the games his friends were playing and normally would have joined in.

It was back to business the moment their lunch break ended and Yuri worked hard right up until YoungJae dismissed them for dinner. Outside JYG headquarters, a few of the members broke away from the pack, saying they wanted dinner out for once and going off on their own. Yuri was glad they did so because it gave Yuri an excuse to wander off alone as well. Dara gave her a curious look but she was being dragged off by MinJi and JiEun, and she couldn't volunteer to come along, though she guessed the reason for Yuri's departure immediately. And Jaebi and SeungMi were no help, because they had been part of one of the small groups that had already left.

So Yuri was left alone to circle around and head back to the practice rooms. She needed to work of Jay's solo, she could _not_ do his back flips yet and they were a central part to who he was as a dancer. With her iPod set to repeat a playlist of his songs, Yuri set to work mastering the things Dara had taught her.

Meanwhile the others were discussing Jay's strange behavior over Kihun's delicious cooking. Why anyone would rather go out to eat than stay in for food like this was a mystery, as it was only half of the band was around to ponder the actions of the newest addition to their family. They didn't get very far, and it boiled down to Donghae and SooHyun bickering as to the existence of a girlfriend as YeongSaeng and Dara tried to mediate.

Dara though, spied an opportunity and took it. With SooHyun occupied, she could take the first shower of the night and actually have hot water all the way through! She left MinJi in charge of making sure the leader and the dancer didn't kill each other and skittered off to grab her pajamas before giving herself the treat of a long hot soak.

MinJi managed to fail in her mediating to such an extent that the pair of SooHyun and Donghae began fighting with her rather than with each other. YeongSaeng counted it as a success and managed to stop the arguing altogether when he hauled MinJi off to play video games. SooHyun pouted that Donghae had made her lose out to Dara in the shower, and before they could get started again, JongHyun asked if Donghae was planning on a jog, because he'd like to come too.

This successfully averted disaster. As they slipped on their customary hoodies and hats, YoungJae warned, "Take your cell phones, and call if you're going to be out more than an hour."

"I left mine in the break room," Donghae announced, as they headed out.

"We'll swing by there first then," JongHyun suggested.

Countering with the knowledge that JongHyun was eager to get going, Donghae said, "I'll grab it, but why don't you meet me back at the fountain after a few laps of the building?"

"Sounds good to me."

Donghae found his cell right where he thought it would be, it had fallen out of his pocket sometime while they were cleaning up from lunch. As he was making his way back down though, the sound of music coming from the practice rooms caught his attention. Who would be practicing this late? The only other JYG band that had a concert coming up was touring in America, and he didn't think anyone from QuaszauR would feel the need to work so long overtime on the songs for this concert, they were nothing new to them.

Then he recognized the music. Jay.

Sure enough, when Donghae reached the one way window that looked into the only practice room in use, Jay was working through the routine to _Only for You_. Donghae smiled to himself; Jay was a hard worker, no one could deny him that. Then Jay threw a back flip and crashed down onto the mats he'd laid out, and Donghae's heart nearly stopped. YoungJae had been very clear, no back flips!

Donghae's hand was on the doorknob and he was ready to burst in when Jay hauled himself to his feet like nothing was wrong and he remembered what YeongSaeng had said. Jay's leg wasn't injured; there wasn't any reason for him to be unable to pull off as many back flips as usual. Donghae watched though the window for another few minutes as Jay did the routine again, this time getting the few aerial moves he tried mostly right as only one landing was precarious.

The problem was an easy one to spot, at least for Donghae. Jay was tucking in to early, limiting the power he could impart to his upward thrust. It was throwing the whole thing off. But Jay could usually pull a perfect flip in his sleep; they just came naturally to him. It was all very confusing.

Donghae was about to go in and help his bandmate, the protective instinct he'd been teased about at their last concert kicking into overdrive, when the phone in his hand vibrated. Donghae looked from the name splayed out on the screen back to Jay. He was quickly growing attached to the newbie and would have liked to help him out, but on the phone's third ring cycle Donghae picked up. "Ah, MinYeon."

Meanwhile, Yuri had no idea any of this was going on. When she'd stopped practicing for a moment she had gone to the break room and had grabbed a packet of ramen noodles, which she discovered were surprisingly tasty when eaten dry like a square granola bar. From then on she'd only paused for quick water breaks. She was figuring this back flip thing out, slowly but surely. She'd ironed out most of the kinks and was now working towards figuring out what was wrong with the way she tucked her knees in. It was not an exciting progress to watch, more like watching a flower slowly bud and bloom than a popstar pick up a new dance, but there was definitely progress involved.

She only went back to the dorms once she felt so tired she wasn't sure if walking back was worth it, or if just sleeping on the practice mats would be better. By then Donghae had not only finished his conversation, but had met up with JongHyun, been gone and back for their jog, taken a shower, and made tea. The tea was mostly a delay tactic, he was getting very worried about Jay, though Dara said he'd called her saying he'd be back late. This wasn't just late, by now it qualified as _very_ late.

After a little teasing from YeongSaeng and the other night-owls, Donghae was convinced to go to bed. He couldn't get to sleep though until he heard the door creak open and a few minutes later heard the rumble of the shower being run. Jay was back, and presumably fine.

The next day's practice was almost identical to the first practice Yuri had attended, except ten times more serious and twice as long. YoungJae and SooHyun went over the entire concert a few times, tweaking for final adjustments as to how they would transition between songs and singers. This time the venue was different and set up so that there was only one raising platform on the stage, one that couldn't support all fifteen of them.

This time after practice was over; Donghae latched onto Jay and refused to let him wander off on his own. As much as Jay wanted to get in extra practice, it was better for him to get his rest. YoungJae had already declared that he was only going to do one back flip in the next day's concert, and that only if he felt up to it as a finale for his solo. That made killing himself with extra practice was entirely unnecessary.

Jay was sent off to bed fairly early, as he normally was one of the hardest to wake in the morning, regardless of how he'd been lately. Most of the others followed quickly after, but Donghae stayed up waiting for the inevitable moment when Jay would try to sneak out. He'd done it before, it was one of the reasons he slept so late.

Yuri wasn't initially planning on sneaking out, but the thought of having to perform at the concert in less than twelve hours made her too nervous to sleep. How Jay had managed to deal with the pressure was something Yuri hadn't learned from Dara. But when she was stressed with school stuff, Yuri had taken to running out her anxiety which is what she was planning on doing when Donghae caught her at the door.

"Where exactly are you going?" he asked casually, sipping his tea.

"Um, I had a sudden craving for a muffin?"

Yuri turned away stiffly as she spoke, the perfect caricature of a thief caught red-handed in cartoons.

"Nice try, take a seat," Donghae ordered.

On guard, Yuri stiffly took a seat beside Donghae at the breakfast bar. Donghae didn't say anything for a long few seconds, but when Yuri's leg began to twitch due to the anticipation, he finally said, "Nervous?"

"A little," Yuri admitted.

Donghae handed her his mug, saying, "Drink it; it's chamomile, good for the nerves."

Yuri complied, frowning as the bitter taste washed across her tongue. Donghae had to grin at the reaction. Though Jay was a goof, his 'cute-quota' was very low. However, his face at that moment was adorable. Jaebi, KyuJeon, and Jinki were usually the ones that handled the group's aegyo for the fans, but as Jay stuck his tongue out to try and air-dry the taste away, the three had some competition.

"You weren't this bad last time," Donghae commented. "What's different this time?"

"Last time I had only been in Korea for a short time and the whole thing kinda seemed surreal to me. Now, it just feels so much more . . . real," Yuri said, confessing as much as she could without revealing her secret.

She stared down into the pale liquid in the mug she was holding. The thought of having to go up onstage again, in front of all those people, made her want to run away as fast as she could. As the panic began to well up in her she took another sip of the tea. Bitter as it was, it helped to distract her from her fears; though to swallow the gulp she had to scrunch her face up in a grimace that made Donghae laugh again.

"Think of it like this," Donghae suggested. "Rather than it suddenly being real as opposed to not real, think of all the prep work you've been able to make for this one. Last time you knew the dances, but everything was so rushed you never got to rehearse them with the rest of the group during the last days before the show itself. This time we've had three days of nothing but concert prep, and tomorrow we're going to spend all day running through it again. By tomorrow night you'll be so sick of all the practice getting on stage will be a relief!"

Yuri nodded mulling over this new perspective. True she hadn't been prepared in any way for the last concert, but now, after having worked with QuaszauR on the routines, she was almost confident in her ability to perform the dances. But with so many people watching her every move . . . Yuri took another swig of tea, this time managing to get it down with little more than a wince.

Her head was beginning to feel fuzzy as sleepiness set in, but her nerves were still enough to counter the late hour and the tea, though only just. "This stuff really works," she commented.

"I have to have at least two cups the night before every concert," Donghae replied with a nod.

This piqued Yuri's interest. "You get nervous?"

"Of course!" Donghae whispered loudly, "I always think about how much the fans are expecting from me, they _love_ me, scream for me, wait in line for _hours_ to see me. They do so much that I _have_ to give them a good show. But what if I trip, or my voice cracks, or I forget the words? I keep thinking about how disappointed they'll be, how I'll have let them down."

"How do you live with that kind of pressure?"

"I practice, so that I'm as good as I can be. I drink tea, to relax as best I can. And I joke around, to keep the fact that everything I do is part of a serious business from crushing my spirit," Donghae said with a shrug. "We all develop our own little coping mechanisms. Right now, you don't have a specific fan-base but you're going to get one soon, so learning to deal with the pressure is important."

Yuri was awed. Donghae was such a chipper person, she'd had no idea he was dealing with all of this. Everyone in QuaszauR was living with such weight on their shoulders, it was amazing. And Jay, Yuri's big brother, was going to have to face exactly the same kind of pressures eventually. Yuri got to go home after this, go back to being just another girl, but Jay was going to _live_ this life.

She took another sip of tea. The thought of going up in front of a couple thousand people who didn't even know who she was felt much less scary in comparison to the mass of expectant fans Donghae had to face.

"Sleepy yet? You should be getting to bed soon, Yuna's gonna have us all in the vans by ten," Donghae said, taking the half empty mug off her hands.

"What about you?"

"I'm gonna finish this first, then I'll be right to bed. Promise!" he added at Yuri's suspicious glance. He wasn't used to being told to go to bed; even YoungJae left him mainly to his own devices.

It was a strange feeling to have Jay, of all people, trying to look after him. Donghae watched Jay walk down the hall, using the wall for support as he realized how tired he was. Within three minutes of Jay's disappearance into his room, Donghae finished his tea and headed to bed as well.


	5. Even Small Feelings Mean Big Changes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A concert, a photoshoot, and a new player make staying under the radar even more complicated for Yuri.

The next day was a flurry of activity, Yuri didn't have the time to be nervous. YoungJae had gotten them started the moment they had arrived at the venue in sweats and hoodies. This time they were doing this rehearsal right, he'd said repeatedly with pointed glances at Jay, who had been responsible for the disruption last time. By the time the fans began arriving they had run through the entire concert three times.

Then it was off to wardrobe, hair, and make-up. For this concert, unlike the last one Yuri had participated in, there were to be wardrobe changes throughout the show. Each person changed their clothes a total of four times through the night and they had all been assigned one of fifteen neat little changing cubicles that had all of their outfits labeled for when they were supposed to be changed into.

Before Yuri had time to even think about how many people were waiting to see them, she was standing on one side of the stage with QuaszauR Action, waiting for the cue to go on. Since they couldn't all rise up on a platform, they had broken into subgroups; Sweet would use the platform entrance, while Action and Mellow just walked on stage from the wings.

Donghae slung an arm around her shoulders, adjusting the mic on her cheek. "Again with the hair! Can someone get this guy a hat, please?" he called in exasperation.

Somehow he got his hands on a fedora and set it at an angle on Jay's head that perfectly played off his features. Then he leaned down so that his eyes were level with Jay's, saying, "One thing I forgot to mention last night, about how to deal with nerves: remember that these people are here to see you. Live it up!" At Jay's puzzled expression, DongHae added, " _Have fun_!"

Just after he finished the signal was given for the band to rush onstage, which it did in a riot of smiles, waves, and cheers. Within thirty seconds, Yuri could tell that she was doing exponentially better than she had the last time she'd been onstage. The song order was the same, and the band intended to remain onstage for Jay's solo, just as they had last time, so when _Hypnotic_ came to an end, the leaders thanked the fans for coming while the rest of the band moved to the back of the stage.

When Donghae's solo began, Yuri completely forgot to be nervous. The song got better and better every time she heard it. And Donghae exuded this charismatic energy when he sang that was bolstered by the energy of the crowd; Yuri couldn't help but fall in love with it.

YeongSaeng was standing beside Jay as he waited for his part in the dance to come up. There were only a few more lines to go, but as he waited he was struck with inspiration. Jay was staring out at Donghae like he was a twelve year old fan girl and _Beautiful_ was the best song in the whole world. Over the dazed popstar's head, YeongSaeng made eye contact with YoungJae. With YeongSaeng's cheeky smile flashing and his arm around Jay, there was no mistaking what he was asking. YoungJae gave a nod accompanied by a small smile.

" _Yes, you~ you are, my beautiful! My~ Beau~ti-ful,"_ Donghae sang, stepping back towards the group as YeongSaeng moved to join him, dragging Jay along for the ride. The singer understood what was going on immediately and adjusted to the routine they had used in the park. It took Yuri another few seconds to comprehend what was going on, but the moment she did, she fell seamlessly into the dance. It was her favorite after all.

She did almost as well with Jay's solo, which was easily a hundred times better than she had done last time. In fact the only real complaint she had was when she tried the back flip, predictably. But rather than it being something about how she simply couldn't do the maneuver, it had been a stupid mistake. She'd forgotten to hold her hat and as she'd flipped, it had fallen off. Luckily she hadn't tripped over it, and was easily able to pick it up when she bowed as she finished the song.

The rest of the concert went just as smoothly, and Yuri found herself able to take Donghae's advice and have fun as she performed. Her head was buzzing from the fear that lingered, but she managed to genuinely enjoy herself and her time on stage. Off stage was an adventure too. Now that she wasn't running back to the make-up room after every song she was able to joke around with Jinki, an activity that was immeasurably stress-relieving. Yuri's favorite parts though were the songs that she was onstage with Donghae for.

She was beginning to admit to herself that she had something of a crush on him, but it was more than that. He was just wonderful to work with; he knew how to best play off every move any of the other members made. He found ways to joke around while being serious that lightened the mood of the performance even while the break-up songs were going. That was what Yuri mostly enjoyed about spending the time with him; his gorgeous face, perfect body, and angelic voice were all just bonuses.

By the end of the concert, Yuri could honestly say that she'd had an amazing time. She waltzed off stage between YeongSaeng and Donghae, with an arm around each of their waists, and one of theirs slung over her shoulders. KyuJeon finished off the line on YeongSaeng's side and Dara was the last person on DongHae's end. It was a line just short enough to be able to get back stage, and just long enough to make maneuvering once they got there film-worthy material; material that JongHyun did not fail to catch on tape.

But as they tried to get around a narrow corner the mood changed with the explosive speed of a lightning strike. "Oh, MinYeon, when did you get here?"

Donghae had been taken aback; the sudden appearance of the girl in a belly-bearing feathery top and tight black jeans had caught him completely by surprise. Beside him, Dara seethed with barely suppressed hatred for the JYG solo singer. On his other side, Jay was looking curiously at the newcomer. YeongSaeng and KyuJeon were looking anxiously between Kwon MinYeon and the sole object of her attention.

"My plane landed six hours ago," she said simply. With a pout of her bright red lips, MinYeon added, "I tried to call you but you had already turned your phone off for the concert. You were great, Donggie-oppa!"

MinYeon then launched herself at the Donghae, who was forced to let go of both Jay and Dara in order to catch her. The two girls sidestepped awkwardly, unsure of how to react. Dara was proud of herself for not strangling MinYeon, she was _not_ a fan of the conceited, talentless, sex-symbol, even if she happened to be Donghae's girlfriend. Yuri was forced to figure the last bit out when MinYeon locked her lips against Donghae's and he only pushed her off of him for propriety's sake.

Shifting so that her back was to Dara, MinYeon said to Yuri, "You're cute, you know? With Donggie-oppa's help you actually did pretty well tonight."

"Thanks," Yuri said, feeling a burgeoning distaste for the girl that was more than petty jealousy. She understood Dara's sickened expression completely. MinYeon was bad news in every way.

"Come on, Donggie-oppa," she said with a girlish giggle that didn't suit her face at all. "Don't you want to hear about what happened while I was in China?" Without waiting for an answer, MinYeon hauled Donghae off. He looked back briefly at the bandmates he was leaving, but he allowed himself to be towed away with little protest.

Yuri and Dara meanwhile were bonding as they fumed about MinYeon's behavior. It was despicable, inappropriate, trashy, conceited, arrogant, and all manner of other negative adjectives. As they rode home in the vans, sans Donghae, Dara explained that he and MinYeon had been sorta dating for just over four years. Really it seemed more like a fan-girl kidnapping than a relationship, but as Donghae had never actually been interested in anyone he'd let things spiral away until MinYeon had announced to the press that they were a couple and he didn't deny it.

When they got back to the dorms, Yuri made herself a cup of chamomile tea and waited for her turn in one of the three showers. As the newest member her place in line was before Jaebi and MinJi, but after just about everyone else. After her shower though, she still didn't fell like going to bed.

She made herself another cup of tea, this time adding some honey to it in hopes of covering up some of the bitterness. She wasn't nervous per-say, but her stomach wouldn't settle. When she thought of MinYeon, she half felt like crying and was half furious, while somehow managing to also be concerned with how Donghae felt about the relationship. Though Dara had been fairly clear that he had few genuine feelings for the girl, if any, Yuri was sure that if he really felt nothing he wouldn't have accepted MinYeon's couple announcement.

After some period of time that felt like weeks but was probably just less than two hours, Yuri fell asleep curled up on the couch, the mug of tea resting at her feet and still cupped in one hand. This is how Donghae found the singer when he returned from the longest dinner he'd ever sat through. Jay's hair was still wet he noticed immediately as he went to investigate. He'd catch a cold if Donghae just left him like this.

The first thing Donghae did was gingerly lift the mug away from the sleeping figure. Sniffing at its contents as he brought it into the kitchen, he recognized the smell. "But the concert's over, what's left to be nervous about?" he mused as he went in search of a blanket.

Though carrying Jay to bed would have been the best option, Donghae was too tired to make the attempt safe; and in order to get Jay into a position that would make him portable, he would have been shifted so much that he would surely have to wake up. That made covering him up the best Donghae could do, if only he could find a blanket!

Apparently the dorm was utterly void of decorative throws, a fact which had never before bothered him. Now though, he was quite annoyed to discover that and resorted to pulling the covers off of Jay's bed to get something warm to wrap him in. Then he made sure that Jay's head had a pillow to rest on rather than the knees which had his neck twisting at an awkward angle. Fortunately, SooHyun had insisted on having small pillows on the couch, so finding one was no problem. Then he made himself a cup of tea, well really he just stuck the half finished cup Jay had left in the microwave for half a minute, and then he went to bed hoping that Coordinator Yuna wouldn't wake them up too early for the photo shoot scheduled for the next day.

His wish came true. There wasn't a knock on his door until ten that morning, and though Donghae was still unusually tired; for the morning after a concert, no one blamed him. He was pleased to see that Jay was up and just as chipper as ever, looking as if he had spent the night in bed rather than scrunched on the couch.

Yuri had woken at nearly her usual time to discover that she'd been wrapped snugly in a blanket and had a pillow under her head. She wasn't sure who had done that for her, though she liked to think it was Donghae. It would have been a move straight out of a drama, and Yuri was as much in love with the sappy sweetness of kdramas as any fangirl. It was much more likely that the one of the caring leaders, or Dara, or Jaebi had done it. SeungMi had been dead on her feet when they arrived at home, so Yuri was pretty sure it hadn't been her.

She was back to her energetic, chipper self now though and was bouncing around the dorms when Yuri came back from breakfast with two iced mochas in hand. One she sipped on herself, though a pick-me-up wasn't really necessary, as she had actually gotten a fairly good night's sleep. The caffeine trip was mostly for Donghae's benefit, as he hadn't gotten in until ridiculously late and would no doubt be in dire need. He took her offering the moment he entered the common room, a grateful smile on his face.

Yuna, with the limited aid her fiancé provided, shepherded the fifteen into their vans and carted them across the city. As they drove, she in one van and Manager Ma in the other, explained the concepts for the day's photography session. _HeartQuake_ itself was trending with the bulk of new albums, and it's dark, sexy, mysterious vibe would be carried over into the jacket photos. The real focus would be on the subgroups.

Mellow would be taking a light, summery series of photos that only required big smiles to suit their song perfectly. Sweet's concept was whimsical; the girls would need to look surprised as a CG fairy or other magical creature appeared before them. The concept Action was going to work with was Yuri's favorite, being a CIA spin-off sort of thing that would allow for them to be dramatic and mature while at the same time goofing off endlessly.

Yuri wasn't quite sure what she had been expecting as they were driving to one of Korea's leading photography studios, but a large warehouse with white linoleum floors and various piles of props and green screens that resembled a half-emptied Wal-Mart hadn't been on the list of possibilities. Off to one side were cubicles for changing that mirrored the ones from the concert and beside them a brightly lit make-up counter.

The full group photos were up first. After quick outfit selections, and two hours of labor from the stylists, fifteen gorgeous idols were released into the photographer's care. He led them over to a brick wall that didn't connect to anything with three rows of scaffolding in front of it. After restating the concept was mysterious, dramatic, aloof, dark, and sexy, the cameraman unleashed the popstars to have-at-it.

The others were perfectly used to arranging themselves in visually appealing manners, but this was Yuri's first time in front of a camera. Her only other experiences with cameras were the mug-shots school had taken of her, as she'd never been subject to any family portraits. There had been no posing involved for them.

Hoping that she could learn quickly, Yuri eyed her bandmates. Dara, regardless of the fact that she was in a slinky black mini-dress climbed up to the second tier of the scaffolding and leaned back against the support pole that was responsible for holding up the third level. Donghae went straight to the top, and seated himself near the center with one leg draped over the tier's edge and the other pulled up beside him. YeongSaeng joined him up high, standing with a hand on Donghae's shoulder. KyuJeon was beside YeongSaeng, crouched with his elbow resting on Dara's shoulder.

They looked so cool; Yuri was sure she would never be able to match them. She was dressed in the black leather and flowing silk that gave the others a mysterious vibe but she felt like they'd painted her into the scene as an afterthought. Donghae called her over, commanding her to stand on the second tier on the same side of the middle support, so that she was facing Dara. "Just copy Dara, and you'll be fine," he said, but then he added, "Well, not exactly copy, avoid the girly arm thing, but other than that, what she's doing is good for you."

Yuri nodded and tried to imitate Dara's pose, though she stuck her thumbs in her pockets as she'd seen Jay do countless times. Against the other side of the support pole leaned SeungMi so that she and Yuri were back to back. Between them on the tier below stood Jaebi, who was facing the camera head-on. On the ground to his right was MinJi, leaning back with her elbows on the first tier and her legs crossed at the ankles. Kihun was the last person to position himself on the side of the scaffolding that Yuri could see, leaning himself dramatically as he stood on the first tier with his feet beneath Dara's and his head beneath YeongSaeng.

Feeling very out of place among the gorgeous idols, Yuri tried to imitate the expression on Dara's face. She jumped as the first flash went off, but quickly settled back into trying to look as mysterious as the people around her. Even Jaebi was managing to pull of the dark and sexy look, while Yuri felt like she stuck out horribly.

After the camera man declared that he had gotten what he needed as a group and now needed individual shots, Kihun told her, "You're doing pretty well considering that this is your first full scale photo shoot."

Donghae slipped down from the top tier, an arm around her neck. "See? What'd I tell you?" he said, dragging Yuri off the set. "Loosen up, these things can be fun you know."

The individual shots took ages, though only ten minutes were needed for each person, ten times fifteen with a minute or two serving as transitional periods between them all added up to a long time. The girls went first, as their transformation into Sweet's concept would be the most labor intensive and none of the stylists felt like putting it off until they were tired.

While they were waiting, the boys either played soccer, basketball, or cards using props they had found in one of the piles littering the warehouse floor. Yuri was more than willing to just watch until YeongSaeng and Jinki dragged her into a game of soccer with Kihun and Donghae that didn't seem to have either teams or an objective. KyuJeon and Jaebi even found vuvuzelas to make the chaos complete, though they kept it quiet so as not to disturb the photographer and his subjects.

The rest of the members were slowly called up for their individual shots as the girls headed off for their sub-group transformations. When it was Yuri's turn, she felt like a fish in a frying pan. She tried to copy what she had seen Donghae and YeongSaeng do, as those were the only two she'd really watched. A few blinding flashes later and it was all over; she was back to playing soccer in no more than fifteen minutes.

The girls came back from the dressing rooms with fresh make-up and new hairstyles as the photographer was finishing up with Kihun. It was obvious why the stylists had wanted to get their transformations out of the way quickly. Where they had earlier been decked in heavy black eye shadow, they now had whimsical colors with silver accents swirling around their faces to enhance their features. The work was so delicate and precise, that the focus required to apply it must have been monumentous.

As the cameraman let Kihun go, he led the girls over to a long freestanding wall that was draped in folds of fabric as milky a cream color as the wall itself. In front of the wall were five mini-sets, each contained a carousel horse, balloons, and a large lollipop. Each mini-set was a different color, to suit the colors of the girls' make-up. They were dressed in a variation of a flirty and flowy white mini-dresses that had a sash or a bow or something of a color to match their assigned set and make-up.

Dara was assigned a pretty lavender as her color, and was slated to go last in the individuals. They were to be taken before the group concept shot, because the group shot required a slight adjustment of the set. Yuri would have liked to chat with Dara, but the popstar was flitting nervously about the edge of her set area.

When Yuri asked YeongSaeng why, he replied, "Dara's gonna have a tough time with this. She can do cute, sexy, angry, whatever . . . but surprised? They couldn't have designed something harder for her. I don't think she's ever actually been surprised, at least not in a good way, so her face doesn't know what it should look like. We did a surprise-type concept a few years ago and it didn't go well for her."

Donghae added, "You can imitate what you see others doing, but Dara's totally original. She really _can't_ copy, it's like she's hardwired to only be herself, and she herself has never been truly surprised."

"Really? Hmmm," Yuri said wanting to pay Dara back for all of the Jay-lessons. Then inspiration struck, and if _this_ wasn't something that would surprise her, Yuri couldn't think of what on earth would.

She trotted over to Dara, trying to time it just right. MinJi was the last up before Dara and the cameraman was clicking away as Yuri caught Dara's attention. "Did something happen?" Dara asked, a bit dazed. She'd been thinking too hard about this again, and now she was stressed rather than surprised. With her nerves pulled this tight, Dara doubted she'd even be able to pull off cute, let alone surprised and cute.

"No, nothing's happened," Yuri said, eyeing the cameraman as he clicked away. Then the moment she'd been waiting for, his dismissal of MinJi. "I just remembered that I have a message for you from my brother."

"What is it?" Dara asked, perplexed.

The photographer called her name just then and Yuri pushed her towards where she was supposed to be, saying, "I tell you later."

It was obvious that Dara was having a hard time with the surprised face after only two flashes of the camera. It probably hadn't helped that now Dara was also thinking about what Jay could possibly have to say to her. Donghae even commented on it. "If whatever you just whispered was your plan to get her to relax, I think it failed."

"Miserably," YeongSaeng added.

"Oh really? Watch this," Yuri said confidently. She moved to one side of Dara's set so that she could make eye contact with her and keep her looking at the camera. "Hey, Dara! You know that thing I was gonna tell you? The exact words of it are sa-rang-hae-yo . . ." Yuri said slowly, enunciating every syllable. _I love you._

It had the desired effect. Dara's eyes widened; her cheeks turned a perfect rosy flushed color, and her lips curled into a perfect circle while managing to smile at the same time. The perfect picture of surprise, literally.

Of course, the announcement stunned everyone else in the room as well. Though Dara's session was able to finish up way ahead of schedule, it took another few minutes before any one of the idols was sentient enough to take orders. The set was rearranged by the warehouse staff and the girls, all still a bit dazed, were positioned by the stylists like puppets. Fortunately, dazed was an acceptable look of this series of group shots, so the cameraman didn't have any complaints.

But then it was Mellow's turn take the stage. Their set was a fake beach, complete with dolphins to be CGed into the green screen background, and real sand for them to sink their feet into. Their concept was light and summery, and dazed was not an expression that fit the scene. After a lot of snapping in front of faces and a few ice cubes down the backs of their white T-shirts, the group managed to refocus.

As Mellow worked the beach scene, Action needed to get changed. Yuri found a black suit that would fit her on one of the seemingly endless racks of clothing the warehouse contained, and a pair of oversized sunglasses that would make anyone in America think she was a Fed. Action's make-up was very simple, just enough to make them look good under the lights. And their set was a well lit corner of the warehouse itself, they were going for the mysterious alleyway vibe. The set was supposed to be legit, making the first group shots mature and sexy, while the second series was supposed to be crazy and silly, while still being set in a serious environment. Action also was designated to take two series of individual shots; they were the feature sub-group since they had the new member in their ranks.

While Yuri stood by the sidelines and absorbed all of this information, the rest of her usual little group went back to playing soccer. The girls, since they had been wearing _sooo_ much make-up had gone to make use of the showers the photography company provided. So Yuri was left to gawk at the set she would be using in peace.

Until YoungJae popped up beside her, that was.

He wasn't the kind of person to beat around the bush. "What you said to Dara, did you mean it?"

"Yeah," Yuri replied with a grin, Jay liked her anyhow. He just hadn't said so yet. This was really a public service, helping two people who ought to get together do so.

"She really likes you, you know?"

"That's why I had to guts to say it," Yuri said. It also helped that it wasn't really _her_ confessing.

YoungJae stared hard at his band member, Jay didn't look like a man that had just confessed to the girl of his dreams, and that worried him. "If you're not serious about this . . . I don't want you to make things hard for her, or for you."

Yuri turned the tables on him. "When we break up, it'll be awkward. That's what you're thinking, right? Well, it's only awkward if you let be. I've had my share of bad breakups, so trust me. Once I had to spend three months on a tiny little ship in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean with my ex; and our marine biology professor was the only other person there. I'm not gonna lie, it was rough, but we got over it and were able to work together on the project. That's what'll happen here. And there _is_ that slight chance that we might get the happily ever after," Yuri added as an afterthought. It was possible that Jay and Dara would truly be in love and get married and what not; it just wasn't likely, finding true love at age twenty.

YoungJae thought that there was something in his story that wasn't very Jay, but he decided not to investigate. Whatever it was, he was sure that the best option in terms of the band was to ignore it. His main concern was the relationship between Jay and Dara, and how it would affect the band as a whole.

"You're both still part of an active idol group, you can't go gallivanting though Seoul on dates every day, we have work to do," he warned.

"I know, besides we both love our jobs. I doubt either of us would ever want it any other way," Yuri said, trying to sound like she was talking about herself rather than her brother.

"And you still have to sleep in your own rooms. I won't tolerate _that_ kind of disruption within my band," YoungJae said vehemently.

Yuri tried not to gag at the thought. "I think _that_ would be _way_ too awkward for us _all_ to deal with. And I think it's your turn."

As YoungJae reluctant obeyed the cameraman's call, Dara arrived. She'd rushed through her shower and her hair was still damp from it. She just couldn't concentrate on the task of blow-drying, so she'd given up and went to seek out Yuri.

Yuri saw her coming and before Dara could even ask one of her questions, Yuri was answering them, quietly though, with a careful eye watching for people near enough to overhear. "Yes, Jay really likes you. No, he did not explicitly say so, or tell me to say so for him. No, he does not know I told you. Yes, I'm sure he really likes you, just like I'm sure that you really like him. YoungJae's not particularly pleased, but I'm pretty sure he's given consent. Anything else?"

Dara laughed. "I think that covers it. And thank you, for helping me with the picture, even if Jay decides not to own up to your confession."

"Will you stop that? The boy's head over heels for you!"

Shaking her head in shy disbelief, Dara said, "You're needed for your close up, Jaebeom-oppa."

Yuri found her reaction cute, as Dara was not the typical girly girl in any way. Yuri'd seen her in cargo pants more often than dresses, and she was more attached to Donghae and YeongSaeng than any of her female bandmates, so it was interesting to see her feminine side.

The Action set was a fairly quick one to shoot, at least compared to the others. Only a few pictures were needed of them posing maturely, and goofing off came naturally to them so great shots were easy to come by. YeongSaeng found brightly colored plastic water pistols for everyone, though he himself refused to hold one for sake of the day-glow orange Tommy-squirt he'd dug up. He looked oh-so 30's gangster with it slung over his shoulder for the close in shots. Yuri's favorite was their last group shot, where she and Donghae stood back to back with guns raised, one green and one orange against the dark backdrop, with their hats and sunglasses on as they wore terribly serious expressions and were encircled by their bandmates acting the part of the 'bad-guys' and looking just as ridiculous. If she ever got a copy of that photo, she was sure she would want it framed.

While Yuri was enjoying her day, the others of the band were in puzzled conversation. SooHyun was most vocal about her confusion, seeing as it had been her who had suggested the girlfriend-in-hospital theory to begin with. "Who else could be in Japan, then? He obviously cares strongly for her."

"Could it be his sister?" MinJi suggested. "He hasn't really been talking about her lately, and he tried to dodge the question of where she was . . ."

Jinki and JongHyun disagreed. "He'd be a wreck if Yuri were in the hospital. The girl's more like his mom than his sister."

"But I was _sooo_ sure!" SooHyun whined.

JiEun mentioned, "Dara wasn't though, she must have known that Jay liked her, and that's why she didn't like your explanation."

"It was Donghae that convinced her, though," Chansung said, adding, "He was the first to say that you were wrong."

"Didn't he know all along? They've been like best buds since his debut concert," JongHyun contributed with a glance in the popstar's direction as he posed for his solo shots. YeongSaeng and KyuJeon were unsurprisingly just to the sidelines, but with them was Jay, who until the concert hadn't been particularly close to any of them. And Dara, Jaebi, and SeungMi were gathered there as well. Dara made for a predictable addition to the group, but Jaebi and SeungMi were usually more connected to KyuJeon than Jay, though now they were standing exactly opposite him at Jay's side.

Jinki was the most confused of them all. "He's been really different since the concert. He's sorta normal, but not . . . I don't get it."

They all understood what Jinki meant, and none of them could figure it out either. It wasn't for want of trying; they spent the rest of the shoot working to come up with an acceptable answer. They even confronted Donghae while Jay was doing his solo shoot, but he had nothing to say on the issue other than, "You guys are overanalyzing this. Sure, something's up, but if Jay wanted us to know what it was, he would have told us."

"You're officially no fun at all," Jinki declared with a pout.

YoungJae though, agreed with Donghae. "If he needs to tell us, he will, until then all you're going to do by stressing over it is get yourselves worn out. Don't forget that we have a tough schedule to follow this week."

Reluctantly the members dropped the subject for the night. They would surely return to it in the morning, but for now they would content themselves with observing the new couple; which proved to be even stranger than observing Jay alone.

Considering that just about everything had changed in the way the band considered Jay and Dara, their interactions hadn't changed at all. Not even a little. There was no hand holding, and there was no more whispering than usual; and those conversations almost always included SeungMi and Jaebi as well, so the romantic nothings theory was out. Though the band took pains to get them to sit together in the back of one of the vans, Dara ended up sitting by SeungMi and JiEun in front of Jay who was between YeongSaeng and Donghae.

It just didn't make sense. A new couple ought to be dropping excuses by the thousand to spend more time with each other. Even when it was strongly suggested that they go out and enjoy a dinner alone together, Dara opted for going out with SeungMi and MinJi, while Jay chose to say in and challenge Donghae to a game of cards.

Even Donghae found it strange, though he'd never been one to cling to his girlfriend. He'd expected there to be _something_ different about the way they interacted. But as they headed off to bed, the only notable difference in either of them was Dara's little giggle as she closed the door behind her.

The next morning, the band had low expectations for a bit of lovey-doviness, and even they were not met. Jay had vanished to wherever he'd been going in the mornings lately, only to return when Donghae found him, and Dara had slept in late as per her usual. They didn't even make an effort to walk next to each other as Coordinator Yuna shepherded them all across the quad to the JYG recording studios.

Recording days were the best and the worst days all rolled into one. They were long and hard and by the end no one wanted to talk for _any_ reason. Jinki once surmised that if an alien spaceship crashed down into their studio as they were finishing, no one would scream. However, the long days were also incredibly fun. The footage they recorded of them goofing off, teasing each other, and sometimes actually working would go into various behind the scenes releases, such as Jay's upcoming _Only For You_ music video.

Most of the day that wasn't spent in vocal sessions was spent learning American card games. Jay hadn't been particularly good at them, but Yuri was; and she loved them so she played to win regardless of the consequences Jay would have to face when he suddenly couldn't remember how to play the games he _taught_ the rest of them. Her singing was pretty good too, despite her worries that she would be found out. She kept to Jay's notes and matching the way he occasionally said words with an almost-accent. It was sort of degrading to her self-esteem when she had to re-record every song multiple times, but the others fared little better. It was a part of the process they said.

Towards the end of the day, as the long hours began to pile up to where speech was becoming uncomfortable for everyone, the focus shifted away from card games to magic tricks. Kihun was the best at them, though JongHyun was a close second. Donghae did this neat appearing flower trick that no one could imitate and he flatly refused to explain how he did it. YeongSaeng kept complaining that Donghae had learned it all from him and was just trying to pass it off as his own, though he would neither tell the secret of it, nor show anyone that he could in fact even do it.

Yuri caught him showing KyuJeon a few times, so she was willing to believe him. However, Donghae certainly had a particular flair about him that made his version of the trick unique. Donghae though, _was_ willing, Yuri noticed while she was taking a quick water break during her recording for _Pretty Girl_ , to teach the trick to Jaebi, who promptly went off to show it to Dara and SeungMi after promising to keep the secret quiet.

He wasn't very good at it, but SeungMi was still delighted to see it. Yuri thought they were adorable together. She considered butting in a bit, sort of like she had for Dara and Jay. However messing with her brother's life was a given, messing with her friends' lives . . . she wasn't sure how welcome her contribution would be.

"Those two have been cute like that since long before you ever showed up, Jay. We've all been hoping that one of them will say something eventually, but . . ." YeongSaeng said sadly when Yuri mentioned how nice it would be for them to get together.

"Jaebi's just not as confident as you are," Donghae agreed with a sigh. "He was one of the most impressed of us all when you confessed to Dara."

"Speaking of you and Dara . . ." KyuJeon piped up, "You haven't exactly made any boyfriend of the year lists with your activities with her. Sure the confession was great, but how much alone time have you actually spent with her since?"

The trio tutted disapprovingly when she shrugged. "You're taking her on a date tonight," YeongSaeng stated, completely serious. "With Donghae and MinYeon."

Yuri nearly choked on the water she was sipping to soothe her throat. "What?"

"I think that's a great idea," KyuJeon said looking to Donghae for his thoughts.

He was wearing his adorable grin as he slung an arm around Yuri's should and rubbed his knuckles into her hair. "Definitely! Just let Donghae-hyungnim show you how it's done. Remember, it's your job to make sure Dara's happy all the time now, that includes flowers, compliments, and millions of little things that hapless guys like you get into trouble for forgetting."

"But my throat is killing me! We wouldn't talk at all," Yuri protested.

YeongSaeng produced a large bag of cough drops from out of nowhere, making his trick with the flower pale in comparison. "Oh, you'll be fine," he said, handing the bag over with a casual toss that made Yuri jump out of Donghae's grasp to catch it.

As she tried to keep her water bottle from spilling everywhere, Yuri continued to fish for an excuse. "But Dara doesn't like MinYeon-ssi, won't it upset her to make her go on a date with you two?"

"Oh, don't worry about that," KyuJeon said. "She likes you way more than she dislikes MinYeon."

"Besides, with what I'll be teaching you, you'll be able to make Dara feel like the only girl in the world, MinYeon or not," Donghae added.

"But I wouldn't want to intrude on your time with MinYeon," Yuri said. It would be impossibly awkward to go out with Dara anytime, but with the guy Yuri had a crush on while he was dating a girl that neither she nor Dara liked . . . It would be awful!

Donghae ruffled her hair. "MinYeon won't mind, she's fine with anything we do together. And _I_ want to help my adorable little dongsaengs out. This'll be good for both you and Dara."

Yuri's last hope was the band leader. "YoungJae won't approve."

"Yes, he will," YeongSaeng said with certainty. "Today is the last day we have before we start filming for the music video. That's at least a week of non-stop work for us, giving us a night out ahead of that isn't something he's ever objected to."

"And after that we start promotions for _HeartQuake,_ " KyuJeon said. "So this is our last opportunity for some down time as a full group for a while."

With the air of a mysterious fortune teller, YeongSaeng said, "You should take this opportunity while you can."

"Now back to work! You're needed for your solo," Donghae said, pushing Yuri back towards the soundstage as Kihun stepped out for his break. "We'll make all the arrangements."

Donghae leaned on YeongSaeng's shoulder, watching as Jay took his place behind the microphone. He could easily pick out the moment the music started because the young popstar began to sway to the beat. And when he began to sing his head tipped back and his eyes closed, he didn't need the lyrics, though they were set before him on a music stand. The height thing had been something Donghae had ignored for the most part since Jay's debut concert. He'd assumed that since he'd never before really spent any time with Jay, he'd just never noticed how short he was.

"What are you thinking about?" YeongSaeng asked when he couldn't get Donghae's attention to leave Jay in any other way.

"I have no idea," Donghae replied honestly. There was something about Jay lately that made him want to take a closer look, like he was a brain teaser Donghae could solve if he just stared at it long enough.


	6. Dates & Developments

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Double Date Night!
> 
> How bad could it be?

A few long, slow hours later, they headed home. They were released one at a time, depending on who was finished with their recordings. Donghae was one of the last let out, aside from having more parts than many of the members, he also received an earful from the recording staff. The solo he was 'working' on for _HeartQuake_ wouldn't be able to make it onto the initial release, it would have to wait for the repackaged one. Donghae had told YoungJae that he wanted it to be first debuted at a concert and _then_ recorded for the repackaged album initially, and he'd said no to the proposition. So bearing the staff's griping complaints was worth it to Donghae if it meant that he got his way.

Meanwhile Dara and Yuri were discussing their upcoming date. "Dinner, a movie, and a walk in the park," Dara said. "It's Donghae's traditional game-plan for these things. But tonight I think we're gonna have to skip the movie, it's already pretty late."

"And you're okay with going, even though MinYeon's going to be there?"

With a resigned sigh, Dara replied, "Yeah, are you?"

"She's awful, but I don't see how I really have a choice in the matter," Yuri said. "And she'll be easier to bear if you're there to complain about her with me."

"Wear something nice, or Donghae will laugh at you half the night, but not too nice or MinYeon will," Dara suggested as they headed inside. "And cough drops are your new best friend."

By now the news had made its rounds through the band and they made sure to let Jay and Dara take the first showers. Donghae too, when he got home after giving MinYeon a heads up call about Jay and Dara joining them for dinner, was ushered straight into preparations. An hour later, the three were in YeongSaeng's blue and white BMW on their way to one of the fanciest restaurants Yuri had ever eaten at, but first they stopped to pick up MinYeon.

She had a bright smile plastered onto her plastic red lips. Her make-up was at least twice as heavy as what could be possibly considered healthy. The moment the car pulled up to her apartment building, as she preferred to spend nearly her entire salary on living in opulence on her own than to bear living in any dorms that JYG provided her, MinYeon leapt into the car and gave Donghae a deep kiss.

Yuri squirmed in her seat, and Dara mimed a gag.

Fortunately the moment passed, and then MinYeon turned her unwanted and falsely chipper attentions to the couple in the back seat. "Hey guys, isn't this going to be great?"

"Most definitely," Yuri replied without much enthusiasm. Dara silently agreed with her, MinYeon ignored the sarcasm if she even heard it, and Donghae was too busy navigating to be sure heard it clearly.

MinYeon began jabbering away, forcing only a minimal of interaction between herself and her audience. She commented on Dara's dress and how it looked lovely even with her narrow shoulders. She mentioned how cute Jay looked in his fedora, even though the checked pattern clashed with his solid colored jacket. She wondered if she was wearing too many necklaces. She was for any normal person, but in her mind, apparently having a large hand bag to match them balanced everything out.

At the restaurant, Donghae gave the keys over for valet parking and placed his arm around MinYeon's waist looking pointedly at Jay. It took a second, but Yuri figured out that he was waiting for her to copy the maneuver with Dara. It was awkward, but Yuri managed to slip her arm around Dara's waist with a straight face.

Donghae then led them inside. After he helped MinYeon take her seat, and Yuri had copied him with Dara, he whispered into her ear, "Keep whispering things to her, just like you were in the car, and lean in when you do. And if her hand's on the table when you do, put your hand next to it so they're touching. Oh, and let her order first."

MinYeon ordered nothing but water and a salad, Dara followed suit, though only because she didn't want to give MinYeon anything else to gripe at her about. She vowed to get a real meal as soon as they were free of here, and Yuri quietly volunteered to go with her, as she would need some venting time. MinYeon would not shut-up about her China Tour, though the parts about how Donghae made for the perfect boyfriend even in temporarily long distance relationships were almost interesting. Donghae apparently never failed to call at least once a day, and he texted her cute messages at least twice.

Partly, hearing about Donghae's sweet side was fascinating. However, with every new story MinYeon brought up about why Donghae was perfect and Jay should really learn how to treat a girl from him, Yuri felt a little part of her shrivel up and die. It was a strong crush, one of the strongest Yuri had ever gone through, but she consoled herself though all of MinYeon's stories that she would get over it eventually. And on the sort of brighter side, as Donghae was clearly perfectly happy with MinYeon, and Yuri had no chance whatsoever, she wouldn't have to bear with the tension of hoping.

And while she was taking lessons from Donghae-hyungnim, Yuri could enjoy some things about the dinner. Donghae had somehow produced a tiny notepad and spent most of dinner, when he wasn't actively speaking or eating, passing his student little notes. Often it was a good job comment with a cute smiley face, or a suggestion to try bringing up something specific that Dara liked to bring her into the conversation. Yuri managed to beg a pencil off of Dara, whose tiny purse was a black hole filled with anything one could possibly need to survive, without MinYeon noticing and returned many of Donghae's notes with commentaries on the discussion and equally goofy illustrations, which got more and more outrageous as dinner wore on.

Yuri was almost having fun, but she felt sorry for Dara, who was not only bored out of her mind and constantly being harped on by MinYeon, but was starving and antsy as well. Between the pair of Donghae and herself, Yuri managed to at least keep Dara from clawing her eyes out in boredom; showing her Donghae's notes helped considerably.

By the end of the dinner, MinYeon had spoken so much it was surprising that her throat didn't ache like Yuri, Dara, and Donghae's did from their day of singing. Even on the ride back towards home, she was non-stop jabbering as if she thought Yuri and Dara were actually interested in what she was saying. They paid so little attention to her that despite the reward if they would be handed a million dollars for the task, they couldn't recount even the topic of MinYeon's rambles.

Donghae pulled into a parking spot by MinYeon's building. There was a park behind it that wound its way to connect to the park by JYG headquarters. Donghae gave Jay a little last minute advice and then sent him off on his own with Dara to walk the way back home. "Take your time," he added with a wink as he pushed Jay to Dara's side. He arched an eyebrow and tutted loudly when Jay didn't immediately put his arm around Dara's waist. Yuri took the hint like a good sport and soon the new 'couple' vanished into the darkness.

MinYeon linked hands with Donghae, pouting. "Donggie-oppa, you keep paying your dongsaengs more attention than me!"

Donghae salvaged the situation with a few well directed compliments as to MinYeon's caring disposition and her ability to get Jay to relax for being the reasons he felt secure in bringing them along. She'd been unaware of most of the notes that passed between her boyfriend and his dongsaengs, which was very fortunate because she was the type to assume that any conversation that she didn't participate in was one that attempted to defame her. She was partially right in that respect . . . but no one would ever tell her that, especially not Donghae.

He took MinYeon on a nice long stroll around her building, listening to her mindless chatter and responding with feigned interest at the appropriate moments. His walk tonight was much longer than he normally took her on, to make-up for the fact that his attention had been almost solely fixed on Jay through dinner. Her feet, trapped in tiny little gold high heels that couldn't have ever been considered comfortable in the first place, were aching by the two thirds marker. Donghae made use of his strength and height to support her as they walked back to her building, while also making it seem to her like she was still walking under her own power as MinYeon wasn't a fan of appearing weak in any other aspect than for the show of it.

He sent her off and watched her go inside, leaning against YeongSaeng's car and wondering how Jay and Dara were getting on. He drove the car slowly back to the parking garage below the dorm building, where all of the band's personal cars were kept in addition to the platoon of vans JYG used to ship its artists all over the city. When he reached the floor the QuaszauR dorm took up half of, he realized that Jay's hat had been in the back seat when he went off with Dara earlier and he hadn't remembered to grab it before coming upstairs. He decided to leave it for another day, and went inside with only a moment's hesitation.

There was a group waiting up late for him. Well, SeungMi and KyuJeon had fallen asleep as they were waiting, but YeongSaeng, SooHyun, JiEun, MinJi, Jinki, Jaebi, and Chansung were all wide-awake and waiting for details. He told just enough to pacify them, curious as they were as to how Jay and Dara had behaved through their first official date. That they hadn't gotten back to the dorms yet had to be a good sign, right? Donghae was completely sure that it was.

"All he needed was a few pointers, and a little confidence boost," Donghae said as he carried SeungMi to her room. YeongSaeng got the door for him, and Donghae returned the favor when his friend was porting KyuJeon to his proper sleeping place.

There were a few dozen more questions thrown about in urgent whispers and Donghae did his best to answer them, but he was tired and needed a shower so after a bit he sent the eager audience off to bed. YeongSaeng stayed behind, asking, "How is Jay really? Still strange?"

"Yeah, but not a bad strange. It's sort of like his confidence for some reason was completely ripped out from under him," Donghae replied. "He's still sweet and kind and fun, but he's so subdued about it . . ."

"Are you worried about him?"

Donghae had to pause. "I don't think so. If there were really a problem I'm sure he'd tell us, and he seems to be getting better, don't you think?"

"I think he's still insane, and that you're just growing so attached to your little project of helping him out that you're starting to overlook how weird he's behaving," YeongSaeng replied flatly.

"He's not my little project," Donghae protested to YeongSaeng's deaf ears.

With a sigh, YeongSaeng challenged, "Prove that he's not by going straight to bed after your shower. Don't stay up until he gets home with Dara. They might not come home tonight, you know. There's always that chance . . ."

"Yeah, and my staying up or going to bed revolves solely around Kim Jaebeom," Donghae said sarcastically.

YeongSaeng just shrugged, thinking about the other little projects Donghae had taken on during their years together at JYG. "Just make sure you get _some_ sleep, okay? We have filming in the morning."

"Yes, mother," Donghae said, enclosing himself in the bathroom for a nice hot shower. He always felt drained after a night out with MinYeon. This time he also felt a bit exhilarated, due to his success with Jay's 'training' through dinner. Their note conversation had been truly quite fun and he planned to keep the notebook, with all of their little doodles and nearly nonsensical comments, for a long time to come.

When he finished his shower, he thought about going to bed, but quickly pushed the option momentarily aside for sake of a little down time. He hadn't had any time to just sit down and relax all day. He made himself a mug of tea, grabbed a blanket off his bed, and settled down on the couch to watch some television. Within a single program he'd drifted off to a restless sleep as the mental exhaustion from keeping MinYeon entertained took effect on him.

Meanwhile, the moment they had been out of Donghae's sight, Yuri and Dara had moved three paces apart. Not so much because they were still embarrassed, as that after a long night they needed a bit of personal space to reflect in. Dara slipped out of her achingly high heels fairly soon after starting to trek through the park, she'd only worn them because MinYeon would never have let her live it down if she hadn't.

Their next move was to find a place that served real food, so Dara could fill her stomach up with something it could actually digest. She'd been _so_ jealous watching Donghae and Yuri eating steak that her craving for meat was paramount. The only place they could afford after spending their daily JYG spending ration on the horribly expensively salad, that was open this late, and that served a semblance of meat was McDonald's. It wasn't quite fillet minion, but it helped Dara to feel full and it was genuinely a meat-product, unlike the ones served in America that were more plastic than anything else.

Once Dara gat gotten enough food in her stomach for the dizziness that came with hunger to abate, she grinned at Yuri. "You like him."

"Huh?" Yuri said, pulling her attention away from the reflection she made of her brother in the dark window of the McDonald's. She was really beginning to worry about Jay, he hadn't called yet about news from the MRI, or even just to update his baby sister on what was happening.

"Donghae, you like him."

Yuri blushed. It shouldn't have been surprising; she'd never been one to hide her crushes very well. That's why so many had turned into lousy boyfriends when they ought to have been left as happy daydreams. Even so, that Dara had discovered her attachment to the entertainer made Yuri giggle as her face warmed. She didn't try to convince Dara she was wrong.

"I _knew_ it," Dara said proudly. "When Jay gets back we ought to get you two together, you know repay the favor."

"Oh, don't even think you owe me for helping with Jay, like you said earlier, he might not own up to 'his' confession," Yuri said.

Dara raised an eyebrow. "And like _you_ said, the boy's head over heels for me. Like you are for Donghae. The least we could do is get you backstage, _as_ you for once, and at least see what happens."

"But he has MinYeon."

Waving a French fry in Yuri's direction to punctuate her point, Dara said, "Who's 98% plastic and 2% air . . . Donghae will drop her in an instant when he 'meets' you."

Yuri shook her head and changed the topic, she didn't want to get her hopes up. Donghae was plenty pleased with how he was with MinYeon, she didn't want to upset that for him or put herself through the stress of waiting for him to see her. "How about instead of trying to get _me_ a date, you focus instead on helping me get _SeungMi_ one with Jaebi? Doesn't that sound better?"

"They are awfully cute together."

"So, how do you think we should do this?" Yuri asked, leaning in to whisper with her conspirator.

Dara arched an eyebrow. "Do you enjoy meddling in people's love lives?"

"It's not meddling," Yuri protested with mock affront. "I'm performing a public service! According to multiple sources now, SeungMi and Jaebi have been an unofficial couple for years. I just want to make a little _less_ unofficial. Besides, if you help me, it's not so much meddling as confidence boosting."

"Sure, it is."

Back to being an excited playmaker, Yuri went on, "I was thinking about the music video and I was wondering if there would be any way we could get them to play a couple for it and show them how good they'd be together. The song is about love at first sight."

"We've had that thing plotted out for a month now," Dara said, adding, "We can't make changes now. SeungMi does get to play the leading lady, but her lucky guy isn't Jaebi. It's your brother."

"Why? Jay can't act! He's terrible! He couldn't even make the cast list for our community Christmas pageants growing up, and they were supposed to be 'come one, come all' things," Yuri laughed.

"Then it's a good thing his sister is here to save the day."

"Unfortunately, I'm no better," Yuri replied, an air of seriousness falling over her as she considered that _she_ was going to have to play not only the role of her brother tomorrow, but also the role her brother was assigned.

Dara tossed a French fry at Yuri; they were the perfect non-lethal weapon, aerodynamic and easy to aim. "You're doing pretty well acting like Jay, that's gotta count for something. Besides, since it's SeungMi you can get over the whole awkward girl-girl thing like you did with me. You know, you could be a pretty good boyfriend if you ever really wanted to," Dara mentioned with a grin.

Picking the fry out of her hair, Yuri tossed it back at Dara. "You're ridiculous."

"I know, it's all part of my charm," she responded with a pretty flutter of her eyelashes. "I get to play one of SeungMi's friends, along with SooHyun, MinJi, and JiEun. Jaebi will be right there too, as one of _your_ friends, so we'll be able to give you moral support the whole time."

Yuri nodded slowly. "What exactly is the plot of this thing? For fifteen people to have equal roles, it's gotta be pretty complicated."

"We don't have equal roles, not this time." Dara paused for a long, draining slurp of her milkshake through a straw much too narrow for the viscous semi-liquid. "We're showcasing the new member, so you get to be the star! No pressure though, you're only going to be lead actor in a six minute music video put out by the world's most popular band . . ."

"Thanks, that makes me feel so much better."

Laughing, Dara said, "Don't worry, it's not too much. Really there are only three major acting scenes for you. At the club when the girls arrive, a pep talk from the guys outside, and then back inside when you get SeungMi to dance with you. We girls have a scene in the ladies' room where we give SeungMi the same kind of talk the guys give you, and there are two separate sets to run the full dance on for the random interlude scenes and the dance version of the video. And a few individual close-up things, for the fans and such, but those will be easy and quick to shoot. I think the total screen time for those bits is like twelve seconds . . ."

"And they want to shoot all of this in five days!" Yuri was shocked. The project sounded ambitious to do in a month, let alone one week.

Dara just shrugged. "Well, it's not like you have any lines to learn. They'll give you expression instructions on site. And the sequences are pretty short, so we can shoot five or six takes of one little bit pretty quickly. The two club scenes will probably each take less than a day. The two pep talk scenes will probably be shot in one long day, and the individual run-throughs will take a day, that'll be a lot like the recording session, only it'll be lip-syncing and only _HeartQuake_ , but even _more_ exhausting. That leaves the two dance runs for the last day which will be _killer_ tiring, but possible."

Yuri just kind of stared blankly at her. "Because that sounds _completely_ doable," she said with a bit of desperation in her voice. Their current schedule, as relaxed as it was with nothing starting before eight am or running past ten pm, was hard enough for her.

"We'll only have to get up two hours earlier, JYG hardly ever makes us get up before six," Dara promised. "It's part of why they're the biggest label in Korea. They actually take care of their artists."

"My worry is that we won't get _home_ before six," Yuri wailed, thinking about the logistics of the shoot. She'd taken a film studies class at her university and the filming part had taken _way_ longer than she had ever thought it would.

Dara fidgeted a bit, trying not to show Yuri how likely her scenario was, as she said, "Shooting does run pretty late, but we should be able to get _some_ sleep. And only the first two days are on-location shoots, the rest are sets in JYG's studio."

It still sounded like a monumental task. Yuri's shoulders sagged in exhaustion just thinking about it. Jay was going to have to pay for a week at the spa to make up for this. She whipped out her cell phone and texted him as much. His phone was still off though, so he didn't get it, but it was there waiting for in him in a series of three sets of 160 caps-locked characters of ranting.

Dara yawned, stretching out her now perfectly satisfied stomach. "We should head back to the dorm, we've only got about six and a half hours to rest up before filming starts. Oh, and don't take your phone out around anyone but our little group. Pretend you lost it. Otherwise another round of ridiculous texting will break out and people will notice that your phone doesn't buzz when Jay receives a text."

Nodding, Yuri followed Dara as she threw out her trash and headed out into the dark. The McDonald's they had found was only a ten minute walk from the dorms, at least while Dara had her high heels slung over her shoulder. It would have taken twice that were they on her feet.

"Do you mind if I shower first? We should only use the one by the kitchen and you seem to be much better at getting up than I am, so . . ."

Yuri replied to Dara's shy request with, "Sure, go ahead, I'm gonna make some tea first anyway. Do you want some?"

"Nah, I should get straight to bed."

Dara showered with ridiculous speed, getting in and out before Yuri had even finished _making_ her tea. She decided to let it steep as she took her shower. Though she wasn't as fast as Dara, she managed to be pretty quick. Her tea wasn't even too strong by the time she got back to it, nice and warm in her pj's even with wet hair. It was just about cool enough to drink, so Yuri leaned back against the kitchen counter as she waited.

The dorm seemed so much bigger when she was the only one awake, though it never really felt cramped, despite having fifteen occupants. It was actually a nice place to live, and a nice way to live, with a big, supportive family all around. Yuri would miss it for sure when she went back to her lonely little school dorm, half way around the world from the only family member she cared to talk to. She was really beginning to miss Jay, so much so that it made moving to Korea an option she would truly consider.

Amid her musing, her attention was drawn to the couch, where a sleeping Donghae suddenly rolled over. He'd been completely covered by his blanket, which blended into the color of the couch pretty well while the lights weren't on, so this was the first Yuri noticed of him. Going over around the corner so she could see the whole of the couch and investigate cautiously, Yuri found that the television was on, though the volume was so low it was nearly inaudible. Still, any noise would be loud enough to disturb someone's sleep, and the flashing pictures couldn't be good either.

Yuri remedied the situation immediately, turning the television off with a quiet click of the power button at its base. The little common room alcove wasn't much darker for the action, the three walls of windows let in an awful lot of light. It was a little better though, and quieter. Yuri crouched by the end of the couch Donghae's head was at and watched him sleep as she sipped her tea. His face wasn't half as relaxed as it should be, but Yuri couldn't guess why.

He was in comfy pajamas, and he'd drunk at least one cup of chamomile tea, the mug was still sitting on the coffee table. Could he really be _that_ worried about the filming? Maybe he was as bad an actor as the real Jay was, though Yuri doubted that severely. She adjusted the pillow he was leaning on, and pulled one out from between him and the back of the couch as she recovered him with the blanket. She also picked one of his legs up and maneuvered it back onto the couch; the angle it had been resting at couldn't have been comfortable. Other than that, she couldn't think of anything to do that would make him more comfortable.

As she sat on the edge of the coffee table with her tea, Yuri brushed the hair out of Donghae's eyes. He was so handsome, even when he was worried. After checking quickly for a fever and finding none, she tried some subliminal messaging; whispering soothingly that everything was perfectly fine and that he'd wake up completely refreshed in the morning. She poked gently at the creases on his forehead as she spoke, trying to manually iron them out. "You really are amazing, you shouldn't be stressed over something so little," she finished up as her own eyelids began to droop.

She was uneasy about the shoot too. However, she was also exhausted, so rather than stay up late and fret about it, Yuri was forced to collapse into bed and black out completely as her body did a full reboot. It wasn't a healthy way to live, but Yuri had used a similar technique to get through the worst of her exam schedule at her university.

By the time she woke the next morning, Yuri's body was rested and her mind, though subject to a throbbing headache and a lingering numbness that would pass with the application of Tylenol and caffeine, was ready to focus on whatever the day threw at her. It was only five am when she woke, but that was late enough to make going back to sleep pointless. She got dressed in a plain t-shirt, jeans, and a vest from Jay's collection of clothes, wishing that she would be able to wear a pretty dress like the one Dara had worn last night in the near future rather than all of this baggy fabric that quite literally made her look like a guy.

When she passed through the empty common room, she ducked around the corner to see if Donghae was still there. He was still fast asleep and to Yuri's relief, he seemed much more comfortable than he had when she left him last night. Inspiration struck as she stared at him and she rushed out into the grey morning light.

The man behind the counter at the coffee shop looked like he needed a few strong cups of what he sold, but he was more than willing to whip up a large iced mocha for Yuri. He even proffered up a sticky note when she asked if he had any. Using the pen attached the order-counter, Yuri scribbled out her message as she waited for her change and then informed the man, "I'll be right back."

Running back to the dorms, Yuri was pleased to find that she was still the only one awake. She replaced Donghae's empty tea cup with the mocha in her hand, bringing the mug over to the sink. It needed to soak a bit before it was washed because of the long-set stains from the tea.

Mission accomplished, Yuri trotted back down to the shop. She ordered a nice breakfast, an enormous whole-wheat blueberry muffin, and her own mocha and sat down at her usual spot. It didn't take an hour to eat her muffin, as long as she was able to drag it out, and when she'd finished she took a stroll through the park by the dorms. It was nice being out like this. Strolling around was one of Yuri favorite tourist activities, one she hadn't gotten in enough of before she'd been kidnapped into the world of Idols.

Thinking about it, she ought to be in bed right now, safe and sound in her dorm room. The strange part was that she only vaguely wanted to be there, where she was supposed to be. Before, she'd wanted nothing more than to get this over with and get home, but now though she wanted Jay to heal, she wasn't in a rush to leave.

"Don't worry, Yuna, I'm sure he's nearby . . . Oh, wait, I found him. Just go ahead and take the others first, we'll be there in ten minutes. Yes, exactly ten minutes. 'Kay, bye," Donghae's voice said behind Yuri.

It took most of his closing for her to realize what was happening. She checked the clock on her iPod, as it was a time piece that never left her side and didn't have the fit issues Jay's watch did. It was really late; her stroll had taken twice as long as she'd anticipated that it would.

Turning around, Yuri was met with an angry Donghae for the first time. "Why aren't you answering your phone? Do you have any idea how worried we've been? You didn't even leave a note!"

"Sorry," Yuri said, shamefaced. She really hadn't intended on staying out this long. "I just got a little distracted."

"Why is your phone turned off?" Donghae demanded. He was actually pretty scary when he was mad. Yuri hadn't noticed before how threatening he could be because he was always so sweet.

Yuri stuttered a bit as she gave out the reason Dara had supplied, "I-I lost it, a few days ago."

"Why didn't you tell anyone?"

"I was sure I was going to find it under my bed or something. I didn't want to worry anyone," Yuri replied, scrambling for an excuse.

Donghae sighed, running his fingers through his wavy light brown locks. That was when Yuri noticed that he wasn't wearing a hat. Outside. Donghae _always_ had a hat; he even wore them half the time he was at home. For him to be out and about sans hat was very strange indeed.

"And we wouldn't worry if we tried to call you and you didn't pick up?" He said in exasperation, "What if something had happened? What if you'd gotten lost or hurt? Or if someone had recognized you?"

"I'm sorry."

Donghae sighed again. He could hardly believe Jay's thoughtlessness. Putting aside the fact that he'd vanished on one of the most important mornings of his early career, he'd completely neglected to let _anyone_ know where he was. Donghae had been so panicked when he learned that no one had seen Jay since Dara had gone to bed last night he'd probably lost ten years off his life. The first place he'd checked had been the café Jay liked to visit in the mornings, and sure enough the man behind the counter had seen a guy of Jay's description, only he'd left some time before Donghae had arrived.

How he'd managed to stumble across his target in the park was miraculous, and as he looked Jay over, sorry and shamed, but otherwise perfectly fine, Donghae's heart rate slowly returned to normal. Rubbing the buzz out of his temples as the adrenaline wore off, Donghae proffered the drink in his other hand. "Want the last sip? We have to finish it up before we head out."

Yuri was about to refuse, when Donghae turned his signature grin on her. "Come on, it's good luck. At least according to the sticky note the caffeine fairy left, it is."

Donghae's grin let Yuri know that he was both, well aware of who the caffeine fairy was, and also no longer horribly angry with her. It was enough to let Yuri suck down the last of the chocolaty substance as Donghae led her back towards the dorms. The vans had already left and the pair went down into the parking garage to get their ride. Yuri spotted the car they had used last night and directed her feet towards it, only to be stopped by Donghae's hand on her shoulder.

"That's YeongSaeng's car," he said. With keys in hand he jerked his thumb over his shoulder. " _That's_ my ride."

The vehicle he was indicating was a sleek silver motorcycle of Japanese design. Yuri's heart kicked into high gear. Stunts were Jay's thing; _he_ liked the feel of an adrenaline rush. Yuri preferred the five star crash-rating that came with the nice boxy BMW. Bikes like this had the kind of engines jets did and had a safety-rating of negative ten. It was not something Yuri really felt like sitting on top of.

Donghae noticed her wide-eyed expression as he dragged her over to his transportation device. He handed Jay a sleek and silver helmet and slid his own device of scant protection over his head. Securing the straps beneath his chin, he instructed, "Hurry up, I promised Yuna ten minutes."

Without any sense of surety in her movements, Yuri slid the helmet on as Donghae mounted his silver monster. He grabbed on to the brim of Jay's helmet and dragged him closer so that he could make sure the straps were fastened correctly. Then he kick-started the engine and laughed when Jay jumped ten feet in the air at the resulting roar. "Come on, it won't bite. I can't say the same for Yuna."

Gradually, Yuri was coaxed into throwing her leg over the machine. Donghae grabbed her knees and adjusted her seat, he was not about to let Jay fall off. "Now, hang on tight to me." When Yuri shyly slid her arms around Donghae and latched her fingers onto the edges of his pockets, Donghae took her hands and pulled them further around, saying, "Like this, fingers laced."

It was a difficult position to hide her shape in, but Yuri managed by pressing her cheek, under three inches of foam as it was, to Donghae's back and keeping the rest of her a few centimeters safely away. Of course she forgot entirely about hiding her figure when Donghae revved the engine and the beast roared beneath her. Fortunately, she'd already positioned herself in such a way that Donghae couldn't feel anything of her but her helmet in his back, her arms at his waist, and her knees behind his, even as she pressed her eyes closed and nearly squeezed the life out of him.

Things didn't get any better for Donghae's breathing abilities as he coaxed the motorcycle out of the garage. Even at low speed, Jay was scared stiff. When Donghae ramped things up, getting them to a speed that would have them weaving their way across town in the quickest way legal, he thought his ribs were going to crack under the pressure Jay was exerting. He didn't really mind though, it was sort of cute how he was scared. Seriously, Jaebi, Jinki, and KyuJeon had some intense competition for the title of 'cutest male member' within QuaszauR's ranks.

Even by the time they reached the club that served as the location for their first few scenes in the _HeartQuake_ music video, Jay's grip hadn't loosened up at all. Donghae had to grin as he pulled off his helmet. Twisting in his seat, he knocked on Jay's helmet, saying, "You can stop holding on for dear life now, we're here."

It took a few seconds of quiet from the engine to get Yuri to relax enough to remove her hands from Donghae's waist. He swung his leg over the machine the moment he was free and set to work getting Yuri's helmet off. Then he secured the two helmets to the bike and hauled Yuri inside, they were perfectly on time, well, on time for being ten minutes late.

In a flurry of activity the reminded Yuri strongly of the first time she ever found herself mixed up with the band's proceedings, Yuri was rushed though wardrobe, hair and make-up in less time than it had taken to get from the dorms to the filming site. And then she was seated in edgy, club-worthy clothes at the bar, with a shot-glass of apple juice in her hand, and Donghae playing bar tender as Jaebi, Jinki, Chansung, and KyuJeon sat around Yuri, each with their own apple shots. They were celebrating something, the director neglected to explain what exactly, and Jay was a happy bachelor. When the girls walked into the bar behind them, Yuri was supposed to see them reflected in the mirror and watch as four out of five of them met up with their boyfriends, played by the remaining QuaszauR guys.

The lonely SeungMi was supposed to go about her business partying and saying hi to just about everyone assembled as Jay fell in love at first sight. The 'quake' part of _HeartQuake_ was this turn from loving life alone, to needing someone to share it with. SeungMi too, was supposed to act out this quake when she sees Jay for the first time as she goes up to the bar to order a dink soon after arriving. Then with drink in hand she goes back to the dance floor, regroups with the girls and confesses her crush.

The scene was to be shot in four little segments, each one from multiple angles. They ran through it a few times, to get acquainted with the few dozen extras that had been cast and to get them tuned into the flow of things along with the music that they were playing back on a large boom box to ensure that everyone bounced to the same rhythm and that it matched up with what would be laid over the video track.

Yuri's acting was terrible, but after a few more tries and some much needed support from Donghae and Jaebi, and tips from everyone else, she managed to at least not look ridiculous. The band was able to review each take alongside the production crew, so they could see exactly what they were doing wrong. It was a long day, but by the end of it, they had a few sets of usable footage that could be edited into a well done opening scene for their music video.

Dead on her feet as the band was released to head home at eleven pm, Yuri was instantly wide awake when Donghae mentioned that he had to drive his motorcycle home, rather than join the others in the vans. He asked if Jay wanted to come with him and grab a midnight snack. Yuri hesitated, though she really wanted to say yes, that motorcycle was _horrible_. Then Dara pushed her forward and Donghae got his yes. The two headed off to the out of the way niche Donghae had stowed the bike in so early that morning.

MinJi and JiEun were instantly on Dara's flanks, as the others looked on with sleep laced surprise. "What'cha doin', Dara?" JiEun slurred with the curiosity that managed to push though her tiredness.

On Dara's other side, MinJi was slightly more awake, if only because she was more interested. "You and Jay were getting on so well last night!"

"Oh, it's nothing," Dara replied with a small smile. Public service, Yuri had called it; the term definitely seemed fitting from this angle.

The two girls gave up prying for sake of sleep on the ride home, but MinJi wasn't so completely out as to not hear SeungMi and Dara whispering excitedly about what was going on with the two roaming popstars. They were both very pleased by the situation, which served to confuse MinJi even more. First of all if what they were whispering about was true, not only was Jay cheating on Dara, with her _help_ MinJi's mind added in, both he and Donghae were gay . . . which MinJi _knew_ wasn't true. No guy could keep a vain, proud, and sex-driven girl like MinYeon around purely as a cover, it just wasn't possible.

As MinJi sunk deeper into her cat-nap, she vowed to get the truth out of SeungMi when they got home. As innocent as SeungMi was, MinJi foresaw few problems with getting her way. She just had to spin her questions the right way.

Meanwhile, Yuri was again terror stricken as Donghae kicked his bike into high gear. Riding in the middle of the night had its advantages, namely clear streets and lack of sun glare. Because of these two factors he was able to ride slow enough to convince Jay to at least open his eyes to watch the passing scenery, and the scene Yuri first managed to open her eyes to wasn't an indistinct crowd half hidden by the sun. It took them more than twice as long to get back to the dorms as it had to leave them, but in that time Yuri was able to relax enough to not only let Donghae breathe, but also to keep her helmet from digging into his back. It was still utterly terrifying to her, but this was progress.

Donghae pulled up in front of a twenty four hour coffee house that was still a solid mile from the dorms. Inside Yuri settled in a very cubic armchair set before a gas fireplace that was operating despite it being the middle of summer. Donghae went to order as she tried not to fall asleep while she watched the flames. "Two non-caffeinated hot chocolates . . . and a piece of that chocolate cake," he added with a glance back at Jay. His sleepy face was propped up on one hand as he listed far to one side of his chair. The sugar wouldn't help him get to sleep, but at least he wasn't going to be getting any caffeine and chocolate seemed to be a particular favorite of the young singer.

"Here. Careful, it's hot," Donghae said, rousing Yuri from a shallow sleep as he delivered her hot chocolate. Then he set a piece of the most delicious looking chocolate cake Yuri had ever seen on the table between his chair and hers. Her mouth began to water uncontrollably; Donghae noticed her awed expression and gave himself a mental pat on the back for making the right choice. "Are you just going to attack it, or do you want a fork?"

Yuri blushed furiously, and swallowing hard, refused to meet Donghae's eyes as she took the fork he was waving in her direction. She waited for him to take the first bite before digging in. It was twice as good as Yuri had imagined it would be. Of course, this was the first time she'd had a piece of cake guilt-free since her eighth birthday. Donghae stopped eating half way through, gladly ceding part of his share to his apparently ravenous companion as he sipped his hot chocolate.

It was really quite warm outside for hot chocolate, but it would help them get to sleep sort of like tea did. Warm milk never failed to make a person drowsy, despite the sugar within the cocoa mix. Suddenly, Jay peeked up from eating. "Why do you have a motorcycle? I would think you'd want a car more like YeongSaeng's that blends in a bit so you won't be recognized."

Donghae had to think a moment before he answered. In that time, Yuri finished up the last of the cake, scraping the plate with the side of her fork to get every last smudge of icing off of it. As she licked her fork clean and then leaned back into her armchair with her hot chocolate raised to her lips, Donghae answered, "I guess it's another one of those coping mechanisms I told you about. I'm not interested at all in the workings of it. And I definitely don't think of it as a status symbol; sure it's top of the line, but it's not like buying a Bentley, or some American sports car import. But when I'm angry or upset, going for a ride always helps me clear my head."

"That makes sense," Yuri responded, sipping her hot chocolate slowly. "Near death experiences are known to make everything else seem manageable."

"Oh, shush, it wasn't _that_ bad, was it? Wasn't it a _little_ fun?"

Pursing her lips in a stubborn pout, Yuri admitted with an addendum when Donghae laughed, "Maybe a little, a _very_ little."

"You should try taking a midnight ride when you're upset. There's nothing better in the world."

Yuri wasn't sure if she replied audibly or if she just sort of nodded. The hot chocolate was almost as effective as the chamomile at making her sleepy. Donghae leaned over and ruffled her hair. "Come on, let's go home."

Nodding, Yuri drained the last of her hot chocolate and followed Donghae as he headed out into the night. She was able to put her helmet on herself this time, but Donghae made sure to check that the straps were just right. Yuri was about to swing her leg over the horrid beast of a motorcycle when Donghae stopped her. "Come sit in front of me, I don't want you falling off because you fell asleep and forgot to hold on. You're the star of our music video and if you die we have to reshoot everything!"

"Can we do that? Don't you have to, like, I don't know, _drive_?"

Grabbing Yuri's wrist and pulling her to the front of the bike as he slid backwards, Donghae said, "You're small, I can just reach around you."

Yuri only relented because she yawned so hard her jaw hurt while she was trying to say that it wasn't necessary; clearly, every precaution _was_ necessary. Sitting astride up front was a much more initially frightful experience than sitting behind Donghae. But when the driver in question reached around her to get to the handlebars, things seemed to get much less scary very quickly. That he was there to protect her if anything happened made it much easier for her to enjoy the ride. She didn't particularly notice, but as she was watching the lights of the nighttime cityscape swirl by, she began to drift off to sleep.

Jay's sleeping weight on Donghae's arm made it difficult to drive, but the roads were pretty clear and the ride was a short one. Donghae was just glad he'd thought about the possibility that Jay might fall asleep. If he had fallen off, Donghae couldn't begin to think about what he'd do. It was probably bad enough that he'd invited Jay out this late anyway; they had filming in the morning. Still, the late night adventure hadn't taken too long, an hour at most, and it had gotten rid of the stress that had built up in Donghae during the long day.

When they reached the dorm's garage, Donghae had to move carefully to get Jay's helmet off without waking him. He was light enough so that carrying him upstairs would be easy, but getting the dorm door open was a stumbling block. He sent YeongSaeng a text message, thinking that if anyone would still be up it would be him. His guess had been spot on and a few seconds later he received a reply that both he and KyuJeon were there to get the door and all Donghae had to do was knock.

Upstairs, the first thing he asked about was why there was popcorn. The entire dorm smelled of the snack and KyuJeon had a nearly empty bowl of it in his lap where he sat on the couch wrapped in his bedspread. Seriously, why had no one suggested buying a blanket for the common room yet?

"You should have seen it," YeongSaeng said with a grin. "MinJi was interrogating poor SeungMi, we thought popcorn was fitting for the show."

"What was she interrogating SeungMi for?" Donghae asked as YeongSaeng helped get Jay into his room.

"I don't think even MinJi knew that," YeongSaeng replied.

Back in the common room, KyuJeon added as they came into earshot of a whisper, "It was something about Jay and Dara. MinJi seems to think that SeungMi knows why they're being so strange."

"I think Jaebi's her next target," YeongSaeng added.

Donghae nodded. Jay had been forming something of a little circle of close friends lately, and the friends he was choosing weren't ones that Donghae would have generally predicted for him. They might actually know something about Jay's behavior. As much as the option of prying seemed appealing, Donghae knew he would just wait it out and hope that Jay would tell him eventually. Though, he would definitely be much more successful at getting information than little MinJi.

"Are you going to take a shower before bed?" YeongSaeng asked, tossing a piece of popcorn in the air to catch it with his mouth as he did.

"Yeah, but when are you two planning on sleeping?"

KyuJeon replied with a stretch and a yawn, slurring, "We're gonna finish the popcorn first."

There hadn't been that much left to begin with and by the time Donghae finished with his super-quick shower they were both in their rooms with the lights out. Donghae was about to follow suit when he caught sight of the grocery list sticky note pad. Quickly scribbling a note down, he slipped into Jay's room and stuck it to his lampshade. Then as quietly as possible Donghae made his way to his own room and fell asleep within minutes.


	7. A Little Meddling Goes A Long Way

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The MV Shoot is hard work, and exhaustion sometimes clouds judgement.
> 
> Yuri tries to play match-maker... with questionable results and significant consequences.

Yuri woke up early again, but this time only twenty minutes before her alarm would have woken her. She was a little stiff, and still in her clothes from last night, but other than that she was fine. Stretching out her shoulder muscles, Yuri spotted the note on her lamp. _Morning showers are much luckier than caffeine. –_ Santa Claus.

It was the most ridiculous message Yuri had ever received, completely incomprehensible to anyone who wasn't in on all the jokes. Even the ones she used to exchange with Jay hadn't ever been so strange, she thought with a smile as she whisked though a quick shower. With the cute smiley face Donghae had ended the note with floating in her head, Yuri was able to shower without being depressed that she had to use the men's body wash instead of the pretty-smelling girl's soap. Since she was pretending to be a guy, she had to smell like one, and usually, the moment of admitting that was the worst part of her day.

This time during breakfast, she kept a close eye on the time and made it back to the dorm ten minutes before it was strictly necessary that she be there. Yuna was there to give her a disapproving frown alongside YoungJae for the worry she had caused yesterday, but when the reprimand was through, she pulled Yuri aside. "Did something happen with Jay? Was that why you went off on your own?"

"No, really I just got side-tracked," Yuri said. "I'm not used to the popstar lifestyle where time actually means something. I've been a college student for so long that the whole, other people are counting on you being here _now,_ thing has just kinda died."

"Have you talked to him lately?"

Yuri shook her head regretfully. "I've been pretty rushed with all of this," she said waving her hand in the general direction of the band's craziness.

"With filming and everything, I'd expect that you won't get to talk with him for a while," Yuna said sympathetically. "Do you want me to talk to him for you?"

"That'd be nice, I would like to know how he's doing," Yuri said gratefully.

With a sharp nod, Yuna signaled her understanding and got back to work. She got everyone into the vans in record time and across town so that they were back in the same bar, in the same clothes, with the same perfect hair and make-up as yesterday before Yuri had time to fret over another long day spent trying to act.

Today there were to be lots of partial group shots as SeungMi's friends and Jay's friends tried to coax them into dancing together. They were pretty straight forward and after only a few takes, even Yuri was getting it consistently spot on. The second half of the day would be the group all together dancing their _HeartQuake_ routine in the club. The choreography for the song's music video would be slightly different than for its concert performances, because the solo bits would be close up shots and it wasn't necessary for the singer to step forward to get the spotlight, and changing it a bit would help highlight the storyline's happy ending.

They ran through the new choreography a dozen times after lunch before the director was satisfied that everyone knew it well enough to begin filming. It was physically exhausting, but at least it didn't carry the same mental strain as acting did. The only thing Yuri had to worry about was her expression, but with the experience of college parties under her belt she was actually doing better than a few of the popstars who termed _this_ as the closest they had ever come to actually dancing at a party.

The good thing about the way the production crew had decided to shoot this segment was that it gave everyone frequent, if short, breaks. It gave Yuri and Dara time to work with Jaebi and SeungMi, as they tried to get the two to admit that they liked each other. They were making some progress among the shy smiles and denials, but unfortunately for them, MinJi was also making some progress at making SeungMi talk.

By the time they were released at three in the morning she'd gotten enough information to know that whatever was going on was much more interesting than a simple change in behavior. She knew that if she just kept pressing the right buttons, the easily over-tired SeungMi would eventually give up her secret.

The next day's filming session was just a quick walk away, so they were allowed to wake up at lazy six thirty. There were to be two sets for the dance version parts of the music video. One was a white set with a dramatic, black QR symbol in the background, the other was exactly inverse. Today, they were filming on the white set, dressed in varying shades of dark grey or black suits, or flirty dresses in case of the girls, with a tie, bow, pocket square, or sash that was a different color for every person. Two or three people wore similar colors of different shades for the ones that overlapped. Donghae had the flat cap that Yuri was learning was his visual trademark. YoungJae had oversized shades that would have made anyone else look like an FBI wannabe, but somehow worked for him. Dara had her hair in a high side ponytail that tucked up under a titled fedora so her wavy locks cascaded down one side of her face. Kihun had a few necklaces on, Jaebi had lens-less glasses, YeongSaeng had a plaid fedora, and KyuJeon had one glove that looked like a polar bear paw . . . Other than that, everyone was dressed pretty simply. They had to run through the revised choreography a few more times, to prove to the director that they still remembered it, before the filming actually began. For this part they had to be perfectly in sync while still showing a little individuality, but really it was the ' _perfectly_ in sync' part that was tricky.

All day was spent doing the same dance over and over and over again, until the footage that captured it didn't catch a single inconsistency. They got about as many breaks as they had the day before, one after every run-through, but they were much shorter, only long enough to review the run to see what they ought to do differently the next time. Yuri was absolutely exhausted by the midway point and ate her lunch in half dead silence thinking about all the ways she could murder Jay and make it seem like an accident. The good news was that the shoot finished up pretty early, at least in comparison to the first two days. By eleven they were back home and Yuri was completely out.

Dance version day two was no easier than day one. The only difference that Yuri could find between the two days at all was that on the second day they were wearing white suits/dresses as opposed to black and grey ones. And, if it were possible, Yuri went home feeling even more wiped out than she had the day before. As it stood, she was beginning to doubt that she would even survive the music video shoot, let alone pull off pretending to be Jay for it.

The last day of filming was projected to be the hardest, and it lived up to expectations. The day of filming the small groups of two or three and the solos on reproduction sets of the club they had filmed at earlier, _and_ on the black and white sets, for shots that would pop up during the action of the video to give each member some time in the spotlight as they sang, took an eternity to get right. Since each segment needed to have a blazing show of the singer's personality _and_ they had to perform the same small scale dance as everyone else in QuaszauR, a good balance between the two was difficult to latch onto. And as the film crew wasn't aware of what parts were going to be used by the editors for the final cut, everyone had to be filmed through the entire song, from multiple angles, with other members littering the background to maintain the 'busy club' atmosphere. Basically it broke down into meaning that it took a really long time, would end up being next to useless, and that none of the stars could go home in case they were needed to fill in the background for a fellow member.

Filming ran straight though the night and well into the next morning. There was a brief respite where a short nap was allowed, but as they were already running over time, four hours later they were back to work until late afternoon. Despite their best efforts, everyone fell asleep at least once. Even YoungJae was caught in an unintentional doze as he leaned against a wall to watch the filming. Yuri fell asleep the most out of everyone. She'd never had to work this hard, for anywhere _near_ this long, in her entire life, so she fell asleep basically every time she sat down, leaned against whoever happened to be next to her. Though she initially tried to limit herself to Dara, Jaebi, and SeungMi, Yuri ended up falling asleep against every single member of QuaszauR at least once.

Donghae only fell asleep once against someone that was not YeongSaeng, or something that was not a wall. Normally, he was as steadfast as YoungJae in his work, but running after Jay had drained his energy stores much faster than usual. He stayed consistently next to his best friend in a semi-doze, except for the one time YeongSaeng was up to bat and Donghae was left alone on a very soft couch. There were a few scattered about the set to make cat-naps possible, but certain members needed to make use of them more than others. Donghae only realized he had fallen asleep when he was jarred awake as a sleeping Jay slumped against him.

Dara was at Jay's side and flashed Donghae something of an apologetic look before closing her eyes and dozing off with her head tipped back on the couch. Donghae looked down at Jay and sighed. As YeongSaeng came to tell him that he was needed on set, Donghae carefully tipped Jay's head onto Dara's shoulder after a moment of dozing off again himself with his head accidently rested on top of Jay's. YoungSaeng's silent comment teased Donghae about how faithfully he pursued his caretaker duties, but both singers were too tired to make their little argument into anything audible.

The hair and make-up artists had to keep touching their work up, as sleep mussed hair and sleeplessness added dark accents to the idols' eyes and faces that were not appropriate for the chipper, playful mood of the video. By the end of the shoot, each idol was wearing so much make-up it was a nearly solid veneer on their faces. Not that any of them were really awake enough to care.

The only person even remotely cognate was MinJi, and she was reeling from her discovery. She'd finally gotten a half sleeping SeungMi to tell the full story of what was happening with Jay. The tale was so fantastic though, MinJi was almost convinced that it had just been something SeungMi had dreamed up in her nearly catatonic state. But as MinJi thought everything over, she had to admit that everything made a _lot_ more sense when put into the context of SeungMi's crazy tale.

She vowed to talk to JiEun and SooHyun about it in the morning, but really that was all she could do for the moment as she collapsed with the others onto the soft carpet of the common room. Hardly anyone moved more than a few inches at a time as they rolled over or kicked someone off of them for the next twelve hours, and even then it was just a few of them going for a trip to the bathroom and a reroute to their real beds.

Dara, to her great surprise, was one of the first ones to genuinely wake up. If it helped her wake up early, she ought to try sleeping on the floor more often. She took a cool, refreshing shower, scrubbing all the sweat, grit, and make-up from the past week out of her pores. After getting dressed and throwing her hair up in a towel, Dara made herself some tea. A heavy breakfast was _not_ what she needed after having eaten so poorly during the shoot.

As she sipped her tea at the breakfast bar, Dara sat on the stool so that she could see the mass of bandmates still tangled together on the floor. Surprise, surprise, Dara was able to spot Yuri curled up against Donghae's chest. The interesting bit was that he had his arms around her, tight around her shoulders and arranged so one of his hands rested on her cheek. Dara couldn't help grinning like an idiot into her teacup at the sight.

"They're cute together, aren't they?"

SooHyun had popped up in the kitchen behind Dara. Her chin was propped on her hands as she leaned over the countertop to stare at the rest of the band. Dara assumed she meant Jaebi and SeungMi, who were in a similar position to Yuri and Donghae. "I hope SeungMi wakes up first, that way she'll be able to _see_ that Jaebi likes her."

"Not who I was talking about," SooHyun said with a grin. "And you're really not even a _little_ jealous! I thought MinJi was crazy, but it looks like she was right."

"Right about what?" Dara asked cautiously.

Jutting her chin in the direction of the band, SooHyun said, "That's not Jay, is it?"

Dara thought about denying everything, but looking at Yuri snuggled up against Donghae changed her mind. "No, it's his baby sister."

From behind SooHyun, JiEun showed herself in the kitchen with MinJi. "So that really is Yuri?"

"How many people know?" Dara asked surprised at the number of people the secret was growing to include.

SooHyun began a count on her fingers. "Us, that's four; the real Jay and Yuri do, obviously; and SeungMi and Jaebi; and the manager and Yuna . . . so ten."

"What about Donghae?" JiEun asked. Looking back on how Donghae had behaved around her since the concert, and considering how they were sleeping right now, it seemed a good argument that he knew what was going on as well.

Dara was pretty sure that such was _not_ the case, regardless of the evidence. "Yuri's pretty sure he doesn't know. I think it's just that he's so attracted to _her_ that he has to be nice to 'Jay', even though he doesn't know why. I don't think he even _knows_ how much he likes her."

"And she likes him." SooHyun's words were a statement of fact that no one questioned for even an instant.

MinJi giggled thinking about how 'Jay' had been in practice. "It certainly explains the instant ogling anytime _Beautiful_ comes on."

"And they can't be together because she's her brother . . . who's dating you?"

"Yeah . . . that part's technically unconfirmed, but Yuri keeps saying that Jay just never said anything," Dara said with a blush.

JiEun spoke up then, "What about MinYeon?"

Dara's smile vanished. "If Donghae ever figures out who Yuri is, she'll be history in a second. As it is, I don't think Donghae considers any time he spends with Jay as something MinYeon would disapprove of. They're worse than just 'friends', they're 'band brothers'!"

The four were silent for a moment. It was only broken by the shuffling sound of SeungMi shifting closer to Jaebi in her sleep. As the moment stretched out, Yuri suddenly sneezed, tucking herself into a tight little ball as a result. Her knees were then against Donghae's chest and he shifted his hold on her, pulling her toward him so that his chin rested on the top of her head. It was quite possibly the most genuinely affectionate way Dara had ever seen Donghae hold anyone, let alone a girl.

Then SooHyun grinned at the absurdity of her own suggestion as she said, "I don't suppose we could try convincing him he's gay?"

There was another moment of silence after the giggles passed as the suggestion was considered for real. Donghae _was_ sleeping with his arms around what he thought was a guy . . . and it would get rid of the problem of MinYeon interfering . . . "I think that might be a stretch," Dara said.

The thought wouldn't quite die however, as the girls watched Donghae unconsciously shift Yuri into a more comfortable sleeping position that used the crook of his arm as a pillow and her fingers wove their way into clinging to Donghae's shirt.

They were saved the suggestion of any other ridiculous solution by the arrival of Coordinator Yuna, which woke everyone still asleep with a start so sudden that none of them knew what was happening until she'd gotten them all in and out of the showers and ready for the photo shoot that was scheduled for that day.

"Filming the music video ran longer than we anticipated and we've had to reschedule _everything_ because of it," She explained to the people in her van as she drove to the shoot location while her fiancé explained to everyone in the other van. "I don't even have confirmation for half of it yet so I'm afraid I can't give you much of a heads up as to what we'll be doing this week, but as soon as I know something I'll give YoungJae a call. But don't make any plans, because we might not have any heads-up before we need to be somewhere."

The photo shoot they were heading too was for the music video promotional pictures, which involved them again being in the edgy club-clothes they had worn during the first three days of the music video filming. The pictures from this shoot to be released as teasers agonizingly slowly over the next three weeks. It was a legal form of torture, Yuri reflected as she thought about the poor fans that would be driven mad with waiting. No, it was more like revenge, she revised; for having to work so hard to make the video, the band got some time to bask in their glory.

This photo shoot was either really easy, or Yuri was getting better at the whole spending all day standing while trying to look awesome thing, because it was really quite fun. She not only got to spend time messing around with YeongSaeng, KyuJeon, DongHae, Jinki, Kihun, and Chansung, but also got to have a little chat with SeungMi during Jaebi's solo shoot.

"You should tell him you like him," Yuri said as SeungMi was not so subtlely staring at the object of her crush.

The younger girl jumped at Yuri's voice and with a blush denied everything. "I'm just trying to see how he makes such cool expressions," she said to cover her staring, at least she was aware of the problem. "I always have problems with my expression."

"Sure. But I think that if you tell him you like him you'll get to see a real expression, like the one I helped Dara make at our last photo shoot," Yuri said.

For a moment Yuri thought that she could sway her, but SeungMi proved to be just a bit too shy. "I couldn't be like you, so straight forward like that," she said, her face going a pretty shade of pink.

Yuri sighed, pushing any harder wouldn't get anything to happen so she gave up and watched the rest of Jaebi's shoot with the love-struck girl who until only recently had been refusing to admit that she had any kind of feelings for the boy she was madly in love with. It was such a ridiculous situation, worse than any drama she had ever watched because of how easy it was to get to the happily ever after segment, and how miserable they were making themselves over the tiny stumbling block

When SeungMi's turn came up, Yuri decided to have a little chat with Jaebi. It was even less successful, as Jaebi refused to even admit that he might have more than friendly feelings. Jaebi even threw out the same excuse as SeungMi for staring. These international idols, so creative, Yuri thought. She didn't drop the subject though, diverging from what she had done with SeungMi. A bit of a plan was forming in her head, one that would only work on Jaebi. SeungMi would just give up if Yuri tried this with her, but Jaebi was a scrappy little fellow, he would fight for it if he was pushed hard enough . . . Yuri hoped.

Dara noticed what was taking place by SeungMi's shoot and came over to investigate without interrupting. Her movement attracted the attention of the others, and soon nearly everyone was listening in. Jaebi was getting riled up and frustrated, and JiEun wanted to move in and stop Yuri from provoking him further as SeungMi's shoot was about to finish up, but Dara stopped her. "I think we should trust her on this one," Dara said slowly. "I mean, nothing _we've_ tried has worked . . . maybe Yuri knows something we don't about what they need."

Yuri just kept pressing his buttons, keeping an eye out for SeungMi as Jaebi swung away from the model to confront Yuri head on. She toyed around with him for another few minutes until SeungMi's shoot had wrapped up and she was within ear-shot. She raised her voice just a bit, to make sure the girl could hear clearly, "Come on, just admit that you like the girl and I won't make you tell her!"

Jaebi stuck to his assertion, as Yuri had thought he would, but had hoped he might not. "Will you drop it already?" He said genuinely angry, but speaking falsely, "I don't like, and will _never_ like Lee SeungMi!"Yuri crossed her fingers as he finished speaking, this was the bit that she was counting on her luck to get through.

The room was utterly silent after his shouted announcement. SeungMi's little gasp could be heard by even the stylists gathered in the far corner. It broke Yuri's heart to see her big brown eyes fill with tears, but if things went the way she hoped they would this would all be a funny story in less than an hour.

Turning around in excruciating slow-motion, Jaebi stared at her, his expression horrified. Not that SeungMi could see it at all through the sea of saltwater welling up and spilling from her eyes. It made her make-up run in the most achingly tragic way and Yuri had to bite her lip to keep from crying as well.

"SeungMi."

Jaebi's voice was soft but it boomed through the silent studio. SeungMi lost it, throwing her arm up in front of her face and rushing from the room as fast as her feet could carry her. SooHyun, JiEun, and MinJi gasped in unison, their hands moving to cover their mouths as they began to tear. It was only sheer will-power and the threatening glares from the stylists that kept the waterworks from spilling over. YoungJae moved to follow his band member, but Donghae grabbed his wrist. "Wait a second," he whispered. "I think this is what Jay was expecting to happen, and I _know_ he's not trying to break them up."

YoungJae hesitated, but it was a long enough pause for Jaebi to swivel on his heel and shout furiously as Yuri. "Look what you did!"

"What did I do?" Yuri demanded, trying to sound unconcerned by SeungMi's rapid exit. " _You're_ the one that crushed her heart. _You're_ the one the left her hanging on to hope. _You're_ the one that refused to give her some sort of explanation as to how you felt, even if it was only a friends thing. _You're_ the one that kept her wondering. And _you're_ the one that let her run off! If she gets lost or hurt, or something horrible happens, I'm blaming _you_."

Yuri turned away and crossed her arms like she'd had her say and there was nothing else to be discussed. She kept an eye on Jaebi by peeking out of the side of one mostly closed eye. His expression fluked from furious, to worried, and then back to furious, in all of three seconds as he realized that Yuri was sort of right. Balling his fists up, Jaebi glared again at Yuri, but then spun on his heel and dashed after SeungMi.

The breath Yuri had been holding finally escaped her lungs. YoungJae pulled his wrist from Donghae's grasp and marched over to Jay. "What did you do that for? Things were fine before you interfered."

"Fine?" Yuri returned, affronted that her aid was being called meddlesome and wrong; especially as she was at that very moment desperately trying to convince herself of the contrary. "Have you _seen_ those two? They've been so stressed out thinking about their every action around the other that they can hardly function anymore! It's unhealthy. They're suffocating! This way, be they together or separate by the end of the day, at least they'll have cleared the air between them. And just maybe they'll be able to relax a bit, the last thing idols need is more stress, you should know that."

SooHyun was equally appalled. "You threw the status quo out the window and watched it get run over by a truck! If anything is adding stress to their lives, it's you!"

Even Dara was surprised by Yuri's bold action. She'd wanted to help Jaebi and SeungMi get things settled between them, but this . . . this was too much. Yuri stood her ground though, this was _good_ for them. It didn't matter what anyone said about her; sure she had to play the bad guy here, but in the long run, whatever happened here would help SeungMi and Jaebi live healthier lives over all. She hoped.

From that point on the photo shoot was awkward and quiet, but only a few more people had to go for their solo sessions, so the unbearable atmosphere wouldn't last for too much longer. That was Yuri's hope, but it was dashed when things got even _more_ awkward as the camera man packed up and left and the staff went with him and the band was left alone in near silence as they refused to talk to Yuri.

She had never felt more isolated in her life. It was absolutely horrible. When her parents had divorced, when her newly single father had left for the store and then not come home, when Jay had run off to be a singer; not one compared to how she felt now. Even Donghae was looking at her with a mix of wanting to trust and upset that she'd tried. The only thing that kept her from crying was her cover, Jay wouldn't cry at a time like this.

Of course, he wouldn't have gotten into a situation like this to begin with, but that was an entirely separate issue.

Speak of the devil and he shall appear; think of him, and apparently he'll call . . . Yuri's vibrating phone made her leave the room to answer. She'd lost it as far as the band was concerned so she couldn't be spotted talking on it. "Hey, baby sis, how ya holding up? I heard the music video shoot was killer!"

Yuri couldn't reply; her throat was choked with trying to hold back her tears from the band. Jay noticed this immediately. "Yuri? What's wrong?"

"Nothing, I'm fine," she said with a sniffle.

"If I had known you were such a bad liar I would have tried to find a look-a-like off the street to replace me," Jay said with soft sarcasm. "Now, tell the truth, what happened?"

Yuri launched into the story, her words coming out in a torrent. Jay listened patiently. Yuri liked to walk as she talked on the phone, and as she was already upset and ready to run, she found herself out in front of the building before she realized it. She couldn't just run away, as appealing as the option seemed and to prevent herself from taking off, she curled up on a bus-stop bench. Jay tried to soothe her, but he really couldn't do anything from Japan and he was forced to give up when Yuri dropped the call on him.

She needed to cry herself out. Now that she was away from the band, the pressure to be her brother was gone for the moment and Yuri was unable to hold back her tears. The day had started out so well, she'd even begun to think that she was really friends with the members of QuaszauR. This had reminded her that not only did half of them not know who she actually was, those that did had only met her a short time ago. She didn't belong in their world, that had been abundantly clear from the beginning, but she never thought that they would all turn on her like this.

"I knew you weren't as heartless as you were acting," Donghae said slowly, making Yuri's head jerk up from her knees.

She stared at him a minute, lounging at the bus-stop like he was a regular passenger waiting for his ride. He wouldn't look at her as she asked hoarsely, "Why are you here?"

"Honestly? I don't even know," Donghae said keeping his eyes on the cars passing by on the street. "That stunt you pulled was really terrible. You have no idea what you might have cost them."

"They needed to confront each other," Yuri asserted. "They couldn't go on living like that forever, it would have killed them both."

At this Donghae finally turned his head to look her in the eye. Yuri stared back unflinchingly; she firmly did believe that this had been the right thing to do. "You really believe that this was necessary," Donghae said as a statement rather than a question, though by the sound of it, either descriptor could have fit.

"And you were willing to make everyone upset at you for it," he added with a bit of admiration creeping into his voice. This made Yuri look away; she didn't want to think about that. "Don't worry, they haven't turned against you. They're just upset, we all love Jaebi and SeungMi like our own siblings and seeing either one hurting like that . . . They'll calm down when the situation settles a bit."

Yuri stayed silent. She couldn't help but wonder if Donghae was wrong, if they would just hate her forever, if they would hate her brother forever. She wouldn't be able to stand it if she had ruined his new family for him, before he'd gotten a chance to really become a part of it.

"Come on, stop crying," Donghae said, slinging an arm around her shoulders and pulling her curled up figure closer to him. Taking her face in his hand, he rubbed at her cheek with his thumb. "Your make-up is running; the stylist-noonas would be so sad if they saw that you ruined all their hard work."

Yuri sniffled and Donghae ran his hand soothingly up and down her back. "Cheer up, you're a part of our family too. No one's forgotten that."

In another few minutes, Yuri managed to stop crying. She knew she looked horrendous, puffy eyes, red nose, smeared make-up, but at least she wasn't actively making it worse now. Donghae touched up Jay's make-up, wiping away the worst of it pretty easily. It was special make-up that was easy to remove because Idols often had to change their look quickly for a show, but that unfortunately meant it ran with even the slightest bit of water.

"Let's go back inside," Donghae suggested. He kept a supporting arm around Jay's shoulders as they walked, wondering to himself why seeing him cry had made everything he'd done okay. Donghae had been one of the most initially angry with the new addition; after all, it had been Donghae that had spent months patiently trying to build up SeungMi's confidence enough to get her to even smile on stage, but after only minutes with Jay outside, Donghae was back to completely trusting in him.

Inside they were met with a surprisingly light atmosphere. SeungMi and Jaebi had come back, and it did not escape Yuri's notice that their fingers were laced together as they stood among their family. The sight almost made Yuri smile, but she had a few apologies to give out. In return she got a few herself; everyone had just been so worried about the younger ones that they had needed to vent on someone. The group dynamic was a little awkward for another minute, but soon things were back to how they had been that morning.

Dara was especially sorry. SeungMi had been her substitute little sister since she'd had to leave her real one eight years ago to join JYG. The entertainment company was good about arranging things so their artists could see their families, but seeing a baby sister and taking care of one were two different things. After Dara had taken Yuri, Jaebi, and SeungMi out for a round of celebratory milkshakes at the McDonald's the two had been to on the night Donghae had dragged them on his date, they were able to head in as perfectly good friends again.

Only Yuri was the slightest bit anxious. She was going to have to leave here soon, and she probably wouldn't be able to come back for a long time. Not until Jay was a loved and steady member of QuaszauR to the fans could they risk Yuri being recognized and the plot being uncovered. She was supposed to be leaving very soon, she remembered, counting the days in her head since Jay had said he'd be back in about a week. Her week was up, and now she was living here on borrowed time.

In the morning she called Jay over breakfast in her usual café.

Jay was worried sick about her. "What happened? Is everything okay now?"

"Yeah, it worked. Jaebi and SeungMi are now officially dating," Yuri said, almost pleased with herself. "And I think you've been forgiven by everyone, we'll see how things go today."

"What are you doing today?"

"We have no idea yet, Coordinator Yuna said because the filming ran long our whole schedule is messed up," Yuri replied. Then she got to her point in calling, "When are you coming back? You should be the one dealing with this craziness!"

Jay laughed. "What, are you tired of being a popstar already?"

"Only a little," Yuri admitted.

"That's good, because it looks like I'm gonna be here for a while longer," Jay said.

With mixed feelings, Yuri asked, "How much longer?"

Jay started to answer, but then he recognized the sound in her voice. "Is that _hope_ , I hear? Do you _want_ me to keep wallowing away in the hospital? Really? You're such a terrible little sister!"

"I am not, I'm killing myself to make sure _you_ don't get caught being an idiot," Yuri contested. "I think I'm a pretty darn great little sister!"

"Yeah, yeah," Jay said. "It's good you like being me, because according to these crazy doctors I've got another two weeks here."

Yuri swallowed hard, her big brother was really hurt and she was beginning to get scared by it. "Two weeks? Do they still not know what's wrong?"

"They have no idea. And I can barely walk," Jay reported grimly.

"So two more weeks of this . . ." Yuri said slowly, half terrified of the prospect, and half excited. She was more worried about her brother than anything though. "Does it hurt too badly?"  
"Only when I try to use it, and even then they've got pretty good painkillers here, so it's nothing like that time I got hit by the weed whacker," Jay said.

Yuri sighed. "Because it's really comforting to hear that this is at least better than the time you _almost died_."

Then her phone buzzed with a text message. Peeking at it as Jay tried to rephrase his original comparison to one that more accurately described the situation, she saw that it was from Dara. _YoungJae's on the phone with Yuna, we have a schedule to follow today so get back here._

"Jay, I gotta go, you're job is calling," Yuri said. "Love ya, bye."

She went up to the counter and bought four mochas. Handing one off to Dara, and one to split between Jaebi and SeungMi, Yuri kept one for herself and offered Donghae the last one. She was genuinely worried he wouldn't take it, but he accepted it gladly.

"You didn't leave a note again," he warned, taking the icy drink off her hands.

Yuri shrugged, "It was just breakfast, half an hour at most. And we supposedly never have anything start before eight in the morning, so I had time."

"Such a cheeky little brat," Donghae said affectionately, slinging an arm around her shoulders. Then he called out to YoungJae, "So what exactly are we doing today?"

"Another photo shoot," he replied without much enthusiasm. Half the band groaned openly and the other half clearly wanted to. "This one's gonna be fun though, it's for fan-service pictures, we haven't put any out in a while."

The band relaxed considerably, but Yuri was still antsy. She did not want a repeat of yesterday's shoot. She was going to be very careful this time around. Trying to gauge how things would go, Yuri kept fairly quiet on the ride to the studio.

Since it wasn't a promotional shoot for anything specific, the band members were allowed to choose their own outfits, more or less. There was a collection of clothes that coordinated well with each other waiting for them when they arrived. The hair and make-up styles ranged from very understated to pretty wild depending on the personality of the subject, but the overall feel of the day's look was supposed to be as natural as it could be for an assembled group of idols. These were intended to look like some sort of like professionally done selcas, a weird concept dreamed up by JYG management.

Fan-service was a popular Korean concept that confused even Jay, so he hadn't been able to explain it well at all to his sister. Apparently, the fans amused themselves during the time the band wasn't actively promoting by writing fan-fiction about what they could possibly be doing. Most of this kind of writing involved romantic pairings between bandmates, and these were not limited solely to male-female pairings. Since any kind of discussion about the band, especially on the internet, could increase their popularity, entertainment companies encouraged these fanciful relationships by having certain members act overly friendly onstage and by occasionally releasing fan-service pictures.

YoungJae was right, this was a fantastically fun shoot. The fan-service shoot involved the pairs as decided by the fans acting cute and goofing off in front of the camera. It was easy to do and entertaining to watch. And as Jay only had to go up twice, once with Dara and once with Donghae, Yuri managed to spend the day actively involved while also not making herself too tired.

Poor Donghae though, was in front of the camera for most of the day. He was the most popular member written about, and as such he had to have a few pictures with every one of his bandmates. Kihun was another popular member, along with Chansung and YeongSaeng. Yuri had just lost her last card in a round of ERS during YeongSaeng's fourth round of photos and was waiting to slap in when she noticed KyuJeon sitting in the corner.

He was watching YeongSaeng's shoots, though Yuri didn't know why. The reason they had started playing cards was because YeongSaeng was boring to watch, he was just being his sweet and handsome self as he stood for pictures with his bandmates. Nothing unusual or particularly funny or exciting . . . it was just YeongSaeng. "Aha!" Yuri shouted as she managed to get herself a new hand. She kept an eye on KyuJeon in the corner as she played it out.

He waited for YeongSaeng to finish up with JiEun and then he went up for his turn. It soothed Yuri a bit, thinking that his strangely dark expression had been because he'd been over thinking the whole guy-guy thing before his shoot. There wasn't a hint of awkwardness when he was posing for the pictures, she noticed, YeongSaeng even was coaxed into making a few ridiculous faces at the camera.

When the session finished and SooHyun traded with KyuJeon as YeongSaeng's partner, Yuri expected the unnatural ginger to trot over and join their card game. He didn't though, he just stayed back out of the way where he could watch the rest of YeongSaeng's shoot. It was puzzling to Yuri for all of ten seconds.

Her distraction with KyuJeon caused her to lose all of her hard earned cards, but actually she couldn't have planned it any better as it gave her the excuse to take a break and wander over to see the photography session up close. Yuri stayed quiet, but she made sure that KyuJeon knew she was standing next to him.

After a few minutes, KyuJeon said, "YeongSaeng-hyungnim's pretty cool, isn't he? He looks really good with SooHyun."

"She's too short for him," Yuri said. "I liked him better with JiEun."

KyuJeon's expression was a motionless surface frozen in equal parts admiration and dismay. Yuri slung an arm around his shoulders, saying, "I was gonna run out for a quick smoothie. Since we both have time, wanna come with me?"

Looking from Jay's smiling face to YeongSaeng back with SooHyun, KyuJeon hesitated. "I don't know."

Jay just smiled wider and clapped him on the shoulder as he began to forcibly steer his bandmate out of the studio. "Wasn't really a question," Yuri said as she dragged KyuJeon along to the shop she'd noticed outside when they'd first arrived.

It was a quiet little place, tucked out of the way of most of Seoul's midday traffic, so they had little fear of being recognized. As a precaution, however, they chose a table in the very back, hidden from the rest of the customers, to sit at as they sipped their smoothies. Yuri watched KyuJeon as his eyes wandered away from his drink and back towards the studio.

Yuri hadn't been sure at first, she'd never seen the courtship of this kind of couple before. But now that she was looking for it, it was completely obvious. "It's more than just fan-service for you, isn't it?" She said, keeping her lips wrapped closely around her straw lest she allow them to spread into a teasing grin.

KyuJeon's attention snapped away from his musings to focus on his bandmate. "What are you talking about?"

"You . . . and YeongSaeng," Yuri said slowly. She wanted to move with caution here, just testing the waters. "I saw you watching his shoot."

"He's my hyung, and he's so good at what he does, I was just—"

Yuri cut him off with, "If you say something about trying to learn about facial expressions, I may have to kill you."

"Just admiring his skill," KyuJeon amended, ducking his head in clear embarrassment. He peeked up through the reddish fringe floating over his eyes to see Jay's reaction as he said, "And you _can_ learn a lot by just watching him."

"You know, Jaebi and SeungMi said _exactly_ the same thing when I asked them the same question," Yuri said pointedly.

KyuJeon paled instantly and whipped his head around searchingly as he asked, "You're not planning on doing something like that again are you? 'Cause YeongSaeng's not like Jaebi, he wouldn't fix things . . . And he wouldn't be like SeungMi and run off."

"Are you sure about that?"

KyuJeon looked utterly disheartened for a few seconds. "Yeah, he wouldn't care enough to run . . . or to run after," he said slowly. Then he demanded, "You can't do something like that, it would ruin _everything_!"

"If you don't tell me what you mean by 'everything', I may have too," Yuri threatened, though she meant nothing by it. She wouldn't come close to doing something as outrageous again unless it was truly a life or death situation. But having that on her rep certainly gave her a little more sway in the negotiation process.

KyuJeon bowed his head in resignation, swirling his straw around in his strawberry smoothie. "I like him."

"Yeah, I could tell," Yuri said, unimpressed with his confession. "I want to know the whole situation."

"What do you mean?"

"You like him, but since when?" Yuri asked. Starting with the easy questions was always the best way to go.

KyuJeon thought about it for a moment before shyly offering up, "We trained together from the very beginning so he's been my best friend for seven years. I didn't start . . . liking him until about a year and a half ago."

"And you like him because . . . ?" Yuri prodded. She mostly wanted to get KyuJeon comfortable with the idea that he liked him, because it seemed to her that he was still trying to deny it.

This KyuJeon had no trouble answering. "He's such a warm and caring person. He does so much work that no one ever even knows about just because it'll help someone out. He's got the basics anyone would want, looks, brains, humor; but there's more to it, he'll never do anything halfway, and when he says something he means it. He's just –"

Yuri cut him off again. "So admitting you're in love isn't the problem." When KyuJeon turned pink, she amended, "Not the main problem. You love him, what's stopping you from telling him?" It wasn't just shyness, Yuri suspected.

"YeongSaeng's not . . . like that."

"Are you sure?" KyuJeon's hesitation was much more understandable to Yuri than Jaebi or SeungMi's. To confess in the usual way was awkward enough, it must be ten times harder to tell a person of the same gender; and the societal pressures the other would feel to say no, regardless of their real feelings, would be immense. It was certainly an intimidating thought.

KyuJeon nodded. "I overheard him talking to Donghae about it once."

"Because a half heard conversation is made of absolute fact," Yuri said with a sigh. "But you won't confess to him because you don't want to rock the boat. You like the friendship, right? You think he'll see you differently if he knows you're gay."

"Don't you?"

"Do I look like I think of you any differently?"

KyuJeon eyed her for a long minute trying to figure out if he was being teased. "No, you seem even more okay with it than I am."

Yuri just shrugged. "My college roommate, when I had one, was bi. That was a little weird at first but I got used to it. I even dated a . . . never mind, long story," Yuri finished up hurriedly, when she realized that _Jay_ hadn't even actually _been_ to college. "Anyway, the thing is you aren't KyuJeon _and_ gay. You're just KyuJeon, being one way or the other is just how you are. Like being lactose intolerant, it's just an aspect of who you already are, so I for one am fine with it. And _I_ think YeongSaeng would be too."

KyuJeon was steadfastly on the other side of that argument. He thought it would change everything, and he didn't want to risk it. He was perfectly okay with just leaving things how they were, because he was honestly happy. He liked YeongSaeng enough that just being around him would really be enough. His hyung didn't need any of the stress that came with a confession like his, and even if he happened to be okay with it, KyuJeon didn't want to put him through the ordeal of bearing the media backlash or the stress of hiding the relationship.

"You're a good person," Yuri said when KyuJeon had explained himself in so many words that Yuri was having trouble tracking the overall meaning of the extraordinarily long sentence that ought to have been at least three paragraphs. "And you really love him; that much is obvious. I have an idea for you."

"Didn't we just go through this? I'm not going to tell him!"

Yuri defended, "It's not for the two of you; it's just about you! It might help you feel better."

"What?" KyuJeon asked cautiously, as if just mentioning the wrong idea could mean horrible things for him.

"Do something nice for him, like epically nice," Yuri suggested. "Like make him a special breakfast tomorrow morning and leave it on his bedside table so he'll wake up to it. That way you can feel like you're doing something special for him, and you never have to say a word."

"But what if he asks why I did it? He'll know it was me. He always knows."

Yuri shrugged. "Tell him you did it because it's Tuesday."

"Tomorrow's not Tuesday."

"Exactly."

"I don't get it . . ."

Yuri nodded. "And neither will he." Checking the clock on her iPod, Yuri mentioned, "We should probably head back now."

"Why don't you wear a watch anymore?" KyuJeon asked, his head tilted to one side cutely. Yuri wouldn't blame _anyone_ for going gay for that face, it was just that sweet.

"Fashion statement," Yuri replied as she got up. She smiled at KyuJeon's puzzled expression, but didn't say anything more and made him run to catch up as she marched back to the studio.

Their arrival didn't go unnoticed, and in a few minutes they had both been roped into a game of soccer . . . that involved using vuvuzelas like polo sticks and the occasional bandmate as a pony. Everything fell perfectly back into place, as if they had never left. Yuri made sure to keep a special eye on YeongSaeng, to see how he acted around KyuJeon. There was definitely a strong affection between the two, but she didn't trust herself for knowing YeongSaeng well enough to be sure the love was mutual.

It was easy to forget that KyuJeon was constantly thinking about how he ought to behave around YeongSaeng, their behavior towards each other was just so natural. And they were each having so much fun. Yuri and Donghae teamed up against them halfway though, giving their game a semblance of opposing sides, though Chansung, Jinki, and Kihun were still just going at it free for all.

It was one of the most fun days Yuri had gone through while pretending to be Jay. Only one thing could ruin it for her, and that one thing called just as she and Donghae were singing away triumphantly, for besting the others in whatever goal their game had somehow developed, on the ride home. "MinYeon-ah," Donghae answered, crushing Yuri's good mood in an instant. "We just got out from a photo shoot. Sure, I think I can make some time for dinner," he said looking to YoungJae for confirmation. The leader gave a curt nod and Donghae went on, "I'll meet you outside in twenty minutes."


	8. A Chink in the Armor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anxiety bleeds into everyday life, even when the band gets a to take personal day to de-stress

When they got back to the dorms, Donghae didn't even say goodbye, he just jumped out of the van and dashed down to the garage. As Yuri clambered out last, she spotted YeongSaeng's car pulling onto the street. It was pretty early still, so only a few people, Dara among them, headed off to bed. They rest piled onto the couch or arranged themselves on floor pillows to watch TV. Yuri showered first and made herself a cup of hot chocolate before joining the group.

Slowly, everyone began to feel sleepiness tug at their eyelids and one by one they decided to turn in for the night. Soon Yuri's only companions were the traditional night owls of the group, Kihun, YeongSaeng, and KyuJeon. Kihun was the first to go, and then YeongSaeng went to take his shower, ordering KyuJeon to follow suit in the very near future. When it was just the two of them KyuJeon moved in for his counter interrogation.

He'd been keeping an eye on Jay all afternoon, to make sure that he didn't try to say anything to YeongSaeng. During his observations though, he'd noticed something he hadn't been expecting at all. "Jay, do you like Donghae?"

"Do you always jump straight to the point?" Yuri asked, affronted and managing to neither confirm nor deny the claim.

"You're waiting for him to come back, aren't you?" KyuJeon asked, ignoring Jay's counter question.

Yuri looked down into her nearly empty mug of hot chocolate. "I'm just watching some TV before bed."

"You are definitely waiting," KyuJeon said.

Shaking her head, she tried to sound completely assured as she asked, "Why would I be waiting? He's with his girlfriend, and might not come back tonight at all; and mine is already asleep. What exactly am I supposedly waiting for?"

"Dara, you're really close to her . . . but you're not like Donghae and MinYeon are, or even Jaebi and SeungMi," KyuJeon said, switching topics abruptly and nearly as puzzled as he had been earlier at the café.

"And you and YeongSaeng aren't like them either."

KyuJeon wouldn't drop the subject. "But that's one sided. Dara definitely likes you, and _you're_ the one that confessed to her."

"Not everyone does things the same way," Yuri said with a shrug. YeongSaeng came back from his shower with a towel hanging loosely over his head. He barked at KyuJeon to get to his shower and Yuri was saved from having to answer any more questions. From scrutiny altogether though, she found no respite as YeongSaeng's keen observations were easily just as bad as KyuJeon. But at least he wasn't asking her anything.

To escape him, Yuri went to make herself another cup of hot chocolate. While she was up and YeongSaeng was still sitting in the common room as he waited for KyuJeon to finish his shower, Yuri went to grab a blanket from her room. It was cold all alone on the couch and she wasn't at all sleepy yet. She wasn't waiting for Donghae, as KyuJeon had said she was, not really. She just wouldn't be able to go to sleep yet, so she may as well not sleep where she would be able to tell if he happened to get back before she did end up going to bed. Besides, her bedroom didn't have a TV in it.

When she came back into the common room with her blanket all bundled up in her arms, she was just in time to see YeongSaeng take the towel off of his head and rub KyuJeon's hair with it like the younger boy was a damp puppy dog. "You have to make sure you don't catch a cold," YeongSaeng was reprimanding quietly. "We may or may not have a busy day ahead of us tomorrow," he added with a grin in his voice, though his back was to Yuri.

KyuJeon nodded as he yawned. YeongSaeng just went on getting the worst of the wet out of his hair. Then basically holding the younger boy up as he did so, YeongSaeng led KyuJeon to his room. Yuri smiled. If she hadn't been sure the deep affection was mutual between the two of them, she was now. She could hardly see YeongSaeng being as sweet had it been her in KyuJeon's place.

With thoughts of how she could _not-interferingly_ help them out swirling around her head, Yuri settled herself to watch an episode or two of the latest popular drama before heading off to bed. She would only get half way though one before she fell asleep, but as she was just sitting down it felt like she had hours of awake time ahead of her.

YeongSaeng sighed as he looked back on his bandmate while helping KyuJeon into his room. The younger popstar surprised him by being awake enough to say, "There's something weird going on between him and Donghae, but he won't tell me what."

"You've noticed it too?" YeongSaeng said with a quiet laugh. "I was starting to think it was just me."

KyuJeon tried to reply, but he was already mostly asleep. He wasn't actually a night-time lover, he only stayed up late because YeongSaeng did. The older of the two knew it, but he still couldn't bring himself to force KyuJeon to bed any earlier than he did. It was the only thing that he let slide in terms of KyuJeon's health, because spending that time with him was usually the highlight of YeongSaeng's day.

Before going to his own room, YeongSaeng checked back on Jay. Donghae would have wanted him to. Jay wasn't quite asleep yet but he was clearly headed in that direction. YeongSaeng decided to just leave him be, curious as to what Donghae would do when he came home to find Jay like this.

Unfortunately, he was too tired to stay up and watch the show, but he could probably pry the story from Donghae in the morning.

The singer in question didn't arrive home for another few hours, and when he did it was with one of the worst migraines he'd had in a long while. Even a hot shower couldn't help it at all. His only option was to take a few pain killers, make some tea, and wait until it went away enough to let him sleep.

It was only when he had his steaming mug in hand that he noticed Jay slumped over on the couch. He was leaning on the far armrest with his feet tucked up under him. Donghae only recognized him because he went over to investigate and saw his head peeking out from under the blanket and listing at the most awkward angle as it rested on his out stretched arm. His hair was just long enough to reach his nose when his head was at this angle and Jay was snuffling in an attempt to blow the annoying strands away.

Donghae had to smile at the sight. He brushed Jay's hair back with his fingers before it could wake him up. Then he set his cup of tea down on the coffee table and carefully adjusted Jay so that he was in a position much more suitable for sleeping. Crouching by Jay's relaxed face as he sipped his tea, Donghae tried to forget about his headache by wondering how Jay had come to be sleeping on the couch, again.

"Why are you even up so late?" he wondered in a whisper.

Jay adjusted his shoulders as he slept and was apparently not quite as asleep as Donghae had thought, because he mumbled, "Nahnt waitem." It was a phrase that could be construed to mean almost anything and proved most unhelpful to Donghae. He couldn't even tell if it had been intended to answer his question or was just a mumbled response to something in Jay's dream.

"YeongSaeng should have gotten you to go to bed, we might need all the sleep we can get for tomorrow," he commented, frustrated that he didn't know the schedule. He began to stand so that he could turn the TV off and let Jay get some sleep when he felt a tug on his sleeve. Jay's fingers had somehow wrapped around the fabric. "Dom heave," he mumbled, which seemingly translated to 'don't leave'.

"I'm not going anywhere," Donghae soothed petting Jay's head comfortingly. "I live here too remember."

"Dom heave," Jay mumbled again. "Everon heaves, ahateit."

The last bit was really slurred together but Donghae's best rendition was 'I hate it', but Jay was slurring in English rather than Korean, and Donghae's translation skills weren't the best of the group.

"Alright, I'll stay," Donghae crooned, moving to sit so that his back was leaning up against the couch and his still throbbing head could rest on the seat cushion. His plan was to stay there only until his headache went away and Jay had fallen deeply enough into sleep that Donghae could slip away without worrying him. That plan was promptly defenestrated twenty minutes later when Donghae fell asleep. Neither of them so much as twitched for hours, the only movement that occurred at all was when Yuri's head moved to rest on Donghae's shoulder sometime before she woke up.

When she did finally wake, Yuri was shocked. She couldn't remember anything that had happened after she'd seen YeongSaeng help KyuJeon to bed, other than sitting down on the couch to watch one more episode . . . She certainly did _not_ recall Donghae being there at any point in time.

Looking him over, Yuri began to feel horribly guilty for having taken up the entire couch. When he'd gotten back from his date with MinYeon he'd made himself tea, to judge by the mug on the coffee table beside hers. He'd probably wanted to unwind with a little TV before bed, and she'd made him have to sit on the floor. And he had a headache, she could tell that pretty easily from the way his arm was covering his face like he'd been massaging his temples before he fell asleep.

She got up carefully and instead of taking her blanket back to her room, she wrapped it around him. It probably wouldn't do him any good now, but it made her feel a little better about having made him sit on the floor all night. She got dressed and headed down for breakfast wondering what she could possibly do to make up for it.

Yuri was later than usual, and the man behind the counter had already had his first cup of coffee. Because of this, he was feeling especially amiable towards his only early morning customer. "What's wrong? You aren't as annoyingly chipper as usual."

"Ajusshi," Yuri said slowly. "Do you have anything that's good for headaches? My . . . friend has one, and I sorta gave it to him."

"This is a café kid, not an apothecary."

"Right, sorry," Yuri said, she hadn't been very hopeful when she'd asked, but it still wasn't fun to hear that he couldn't help her.

The shop owner, the only person who was invested in the store enough to pull the early shift, stared at the downtrodden youngster. "You shouldn't make that kind of a face," he said, feeling his heart melt. "It's much better to see you smiling, I'm sure your friend would agree . . . I think I have _something_ that might be able to help you."

The kid's sudden, exuberantly hopeful, expression made him sure he wouldn't regret this. "Hang on just a moment. And pick out what kind of muffin you want this morning; I won't let you run off without at least a half decent meal."

He shuffled into the back room for a minute, returning with a small vile of amber liquid in his hand. "This is my own special brew," he said proudly. "It mixes best with hot tea and is extremely sweet, so you probably won't need to add any sugar. Sugar is bad for headaches anyway. It's very powerful so only add a few drops, okay?"

Yuri nodded and ordered two chocolate chip muffins and a large hot tea. The moment she paid, she bolted home. After taking her hot chocolate mug and Donghae's half empty cup of tea into the kitchen to be washed, she set a muffin on a plate and poured half of the tea into a clean mug. She did just as instructed, stirring only a few drops of the serum into the brew.

She added sugar and ice to the tea still in the paper cup and ate her breakfast as she waited for Donghae's tea to cool. While she was eating, a sleepy Dara appeared and wandered through the kitchen, dressed for the day, but clearly not entirely awake yet. "We don't have a schedule for today," she said suddenly, having found a sticky note from Yuna on the fridge. It took a moment to sink in, but once it did, she was wide awake. "We have a day off!" She almost shouted it, but Yuri kept her quiet.

She cheerfully made herself a quick breakfast of so many different bits of left-overs that Yuri couldn't even imagine how it would taste, though she was _sure_ that it wasn't suitable for breakfast. Dara hummed a medley of little tunes that Yuri also couldn't recognize, as she ate and watched her friend scribbling a note.

Then she sobered up a bit and said, "We have to talk, not here. About . . .'you'."

Yuri was puzzled, and slightly worried, but she added an addendum to her note and stuck it to the plate with the extra muffin on it and brought both the tea and the muffin over to where Donghae was still sound asleep.

Then she followed Dara outside into the morning, half delighted and half worried out of her mind. She was getting used to the dual feelings thing that had come with her disguise though, so she was able to focus on the happy side as they walked through the streets of Seoul.

Back in the dorms, activity was slowly developing. One at a time, the members woke to find Yuna's note, when exactly she had come in and left it was a mystery to them, but they were certainly glad she had. YoungJae, when he woke shortly after Yuri and Dara had left, posted his own note beside Yuna's, warning the members to be back home early and not to do anything stupid. Jinki came in with a yawn just as he was sticking it firmly in place.

Bleary eyed, he asked, "And you're going to be working again today I suppose?"

"Just for part of the day," YoungJae replied.

Jinki pouted. "Then JongHyun'll probably work with you . . . no fun!"

SooHyun came into the kitchen just then, a bright smile on her face. "I bet that if you convinced SeungMi and Jaebi, the three of you could drag him to the zoo, the guy needs a day off."

Jinki brightened at the idea and skipped off to find the young couple. They would like the zoo, he was sure of it. And none of them had spent anywhere near enough time with JongHyun lately; he was so busy helping YoungJae with the administrative aspects of the band. This would be prefect!

SooHyun looked at YoungJae pointedly saying, "He's not the only one that needs a day off. You should go with Chansung and Kihun to see the movie they've been talking about lately, I'll take care of the admin stuff today."

"Really?" YoungJae said, arching a suspicious eyebrow.

"Yeah, I really ought to start pulling my weight with this leader thing," SooHyun said. "I'll get JiEun and MinJi to help out, that way it'll only take a few hours. _You_ need a day off, seriously. I think the bags under your eyes are forming into black holes."

YoungJae only relented to her case, when the two helpers in question appeared, agreed instantly, and pushed their leader back into his bedroom before going with SooHyun to their JYG office.

The leader was certainly over-worked, and he laid back down for a quick nap, waking up just in time to tag along with Kihun for an early brunch. Chansung had woken up sometime between YoungJae's first trip to the kitchen and his second, and had promised to meet anyone who wanted to come at the theater in an hour via a third post-it note on the fridge. The last two to wander out of bed were the last two who had gone to it. YeongSaeng and KyuJeon joined Kihun and YoungJae at the breakfast bar, just in time to join the conversation over Donghae, who was _still_ asleep by the couch.

"I've warned him not to stay out so late with her," YoungJae complained. "He always comes back in awful shape. Working so hard to please her wears him out. He got lucky this time, but . . ."

Kihun mentioned, "It's really quite nice that he puts so much effort into her. Honestly, most boyfriends don't take that kind of trouble. Even Jay's not as enthusiastic."

"At least not about Dara," YeongSaeng added. "That's his blanket around Donghae, and he's the only one of us that goes through the trouble of getting a _muffin_ for breakfast. He's out with Dara now, but he made sure to take care of Donghae first."

"Why exactly _is_ Donghae on the floor?" Kihun wondered.

"Probably because Jay was on the couch," YeongSaeng suggested.

YoungJae rubbed his temples, he was going to have to start micro-managing their sleeping habits, or two of his most important band members would collapse one of these days. "Why was Jay on the couch?"

"Because he was waiting for Donghae," KyuJeon replied, sure despite the singer's denials from last night.

Kihun sighed, "I don't understand either of them."

"I don't think there's any harm in it," YoungJae said cautiously. "Donghae ought to have someone looking after him, and we all know that Jay needs whatever help he can get. So long as the kid doesn't try to pull another stunt like he did with Jaebi, I think we ought to just let Donghae handle him."

KyuJeon looked away, silently praying as hard as he could that Donghae would be able to restrain him. YeongSaeng meanwhile said, "I wasn't planning on doing anything otherwise. I personally think that this is probably good for them."

Nodding, Kihun said, "They've both seemed less stressed since Jay's debut concert than they were any time before it."

"Speaking of de-stressing," YoungJae said with a glance at his watch. "We ought to be heading out to our movie. Are you guys going to come?"

YeongSaeng and KyuJeon shook their heads. Simultaneously they announced, "Video games." No other activity had crossed either of their minds when they had discovered that they were schedule-less for today. Mario-kart had been calling their names for a month now, and this was this first day they'd had free to answer it.

"We should be back by six," YoungJae said. " _Everyone_ should be, but we'll see what happens." Nothing ever happened the way the leader planned for it to.

YeongSaeng and KyuJeon waved them off and finished their breakfasts slowly. They weren't going to stay quiet very long once they started to play the virtual racing game, and they wanted to let Donghae recover as much as possible before they started screaming at the screen. The ten minutes they left him wasn't enough to prevent his waking up with a migraine _worse_ than the one he'd fallen asleep with.

He felt like he was hung over, and as one of the very few members of QuaszauR who had actually gotten drunk before, he could relate that experience and this one with confidence in his accuracy. He couldn't even move for the first few seconds after a shout from behind him disturbed his sleep.

It wasn't until YeongSaeng crouched down in front of him and poked at his forehead with cold fingers that Donghae actually gained full consciousness. Though, how conscious one could be with a headache as bad as Donghae's was debatable.

He was at least cognate enough to understand as YeongSaeng said, "Ah, you _are_ alive! We were actually beginning to get worried, it's almost noon."

"What happened?" The details were really fuzzy to Donghae, though mostly it was his headache that made accurate recall impossible.

YeongSaeng ignored him saying, "You should eat. And this is the second time I've warmed this stupid tea up, so you'd better drink it while it's hot; here."

A warm mug made its way into Donghae's hands, and with a lack of both desire and ability to do anything else, Donghae sipped at its contents. The tea was _really_ sweet, almost too sweet to handle. Each sip made his head spin a little from the sheer sensation of it, but slowly he got used to it . . . well, no, no one could _ever_ get used to something that sweet, but his head began to spin less and less, and the shouts of YeongSaeng and KyuJeon, which he could now identify by their voices, weren't quite as atrociously loud . . . By the time he was halfway done the tea, his headache had been reduced to almost nothing.

He looked around, trying to remember how he'd gotten to where he was. His glance caught a plate on the edge of the coffee table that had a large chocolate chip muffin on it. Seeing it made Donghae's mouth water, and in another instant it was in his hand and he was wolfing it down. At that moment, he couldn't remember anything ever having tasted half so heavenly in his life. He was absolutely starving, but the muffin was enormous and very rich, and in an almost magical twenty minutes since having woken up, Donghae found himself completely full and without even a trace of his headache.

Then he spied the note that had been attached to the plate. _Morning muffins are_ _so_ _much luckier than morning showers. Everyone knows that. By the way, the tea is magic. –_ The Easter Bunny. There was even a post script; _the one called 'Jay' is going out for the day. If anything happens, call Dara._

Donghae grinned. He remembered now. He'd come home to find Jay half asleep on the couch and the insane singer had made him sit by him half the night.

"Did you say it was almost noon?" Donghae asked suddenly, realizing that he'd slept nearly eleven hours with his neck in a horribly contorted position. The tea truly was magic if it got rid of that kind of pain too, because Donghae felt not a bit worse for wear.

"Yup, pretty cool isn't it?" KyuJeon said as he waved his hands around maniacally, sure that by moving the controller he could somehow make his virtual car cooperate with his commands better. "Since we're all messed up because of the music video, we don't have anything to do today!"

"Where's Jay?"

"Don't you pay attention to anything, pretty boy?" YeongSaeng asked. "Read the note. He's out with Dara. Don't pout, grab a controller and get up here."

Donghae hesitated for a minute, but as he had nothing else to do with Jay on a date and MinYeon the furthest thing from his mind, he was soon screaming at the poor television screen right along with YeongSaeng and KyuJeon.

Meanwhile, Yuri had followed Dara as she rambled through the streets of Seoul until her curiosity had boiled over. "What did you mean by about 'me'?"

Dara sighed, slightly embarrassed. "Apparently, SooHyun, MinJi, and JiEun have figured out that you're not Jay. Actually they found out a couple days ago."

"And you're just telling me now!" Yuri was now in full panic mode, "Did they say they would keep the secret? Can SooHyun even do that? Do they know the _whole_ story, or just that I'm not who I say I am?"  
"Slow down!" Dara commanded. It silenced Yuri long enough for her to say, "They know the whole story, all of it. Including how jobs are at stake. They haven't said they won't tell, but they haven't told yet. And I have no idea what's going on with SooHyun. She's one of two leaders, so theoretically she should be obligated to tell."

Yuri ran her fingers through her hair; it was a much less satisfying gesture than when she had nice long locks to rip through her frustration with. "Then what are we supposed to do? You think we could spin it somehow? Like I'm some crazy fangirl that kidnapped Jay, told you I was his sister, and made you help me because he was 'hurt'? That way, if you guys all keep to the story, we could minimize the damage."

"And you would go to jail."

"But nobody would lose their careers," Yuri countered.

Dara still refused to even consider it. "I'm not letting you go to jail, and I think I speak for Jaebi and SeungMi, and I _know_ Jay would agree with me."

Yuri stood mutely for a few moments, resolved to find a solution.

"We could just wait it out and see what happens," Dara suggested. "That plan has worked so far for us; maybe it will just work out somehow."

"Because planning for luck to help us is a _great_ idea," Yuri mumbled glumly. Without any enthusiasm whatsoever, she said louder, "So we have a day off . . . how do you want to spend it?"

Dara grinned. "I was thinking spa day! Though . . . we can't use anywhere a popstar would usually go . . . because popstars go there . . . and they'll know who we are. . . and that you should be a boy . . . But we _need_ to do something about your poor hair."

"The guy's shampoo has been killer on it, and just look at what's happened to my pores! It's terrible!" Yuri wailed.

Thinking for a moment, Dara suddenly said, "I know just the place! Damage control for those split ends, a facial, _and_ mani-pedi just because we can!"

Dara grabbed Yuri's arm and led the way as they raced through town to a side of Seoul Yuri had never seen before. It was highly residential, with narrow walkways winding through the crowed apartment complexes. Then out of nowhere, with no warning at all, was a salon. Dara walked in and pulled off her hat and sunglasses, completely fearless among the half a dozen customers and staff inside. "Ajuma!" She called, "Heo Ajuma!"

As Yuri's wide-eyed surprise fell into her field of vision, Dara explained, "I grew up around here, everyone knows me anyway, so we don't have to worry about being fan-mobbed, and since it's not a big place with security details hanging around, _you_ won't be recognized."

Just as Yuri nodded, a round woman of about forty-five came out from a back room, a take-out container in her hands. "Dara-ssi? Is that you? What are you doing here?"

She came over by taking tiny, bouncy steps that punctuated her words. As if that weren't enough, she was snapping her chopsticks in Dara's directions as the younger woman leaned down to give her a big hug as she said, "You haven't visited in _months_ young lady!"

"I'm sorry, Ajuma," Dara said. "I've been really busy."

"Yeah, yeah, you and your ridiculous career! Oh my," she said suddenly when she spotted Yuri. "Oh you poor girl, what the devil happened to you?"

Dara laughed. "That is a _long_ story Ajuma. But we're here to see if you can help it."

"I don't know, it looks pretty bad," she said, circling Yuri slowly. "But I'm sure I can do something . . . how long _is_ this story? Do you need to keep your hair about the same?"

"Unfortunately," Yuri said. The cut she'd had it in wasn't one that worked well with her face if not meticulously maintained, while she was a girl. The reason it didn't work well on her kind of face was because once it began to try to even itself out, she looked like a guy; which at this particular time was kinda the point.

The woman gave a curt nod, unquestioning. Then she handed Dara her food and clapped twice. "Kahi, JiYeon, get these girls sorted out. I'll finish Kim-ssi's hair, and Choi-ssi needs to be steamed for a while longer anyway."

There was a quick flutter of activity, Heo Ajuma somehow got her food back as she went to check with the customer that one of the girls in question was being pulled from, and Dara and Yuri were whisked into the back corner of the salon. "Kahi-unnie! I've missed you so much!" Dara said as the two salon workers began to wash her and Yuri's hair with some of the nicest shampoo Yuri's hair had ever felt.

"I've missed you too, Dara; you really ought to come here more often!" Kahi replied.

The other girl, JiYeon Yuri recalled, said, "And you should bring more friends too! What's your name, miss-friend-of-Dara?"

"Yuri, I'm her bandmate's sister."

"I was wondering how you two had met," Kahi mentioned. "Dara doesn't go out of her way to make friends so seeing you with her has made Heo Ajuma's _year_!"

"Heo Ajuma and my mother are close friends," Dara explained."I think I've spent more time in this salon than I have in my own house!"

JiYeon laughed. "That is probably not an understatement, your mom used to work such crazy hours and she used to drop you off here for the day . . . To get in the way of _everything_ we were trying to do, and scaring half the customers away with your _awful_ singing. Jeez, you've sure gotten better since you were five."

Yuri listened to their conversation in fascination. She was learning about a completely different side to Dara than she had known before and it was amazing. The history lesson went on for another ten minutes as the salon pros whipped through a double shampooing and moved seamlessly on to conditioner.

Throwing the wet hair up in towels, Kahi and JiYeon led their subjects over to the other side of the salon. Leaning back their chairs, JiYeon instructed, "Now, enough chatter. You should just relax now, or the facial won't be as effective. Yuri, do we need you leave your fingernails paint-free?"

"Yeah, unfortunately, for at least another two weeks, no nail polish for me," Yuri sighed as Kahi began rubbing a tingly, home-made, green paste unlike any other facial cream in the world onto her face.

Dara jumped in with, "Do her toes though, something cute!"

"Yes, ma'am, Miss popstar!" the two said in unison. An hour later the facial cream came off, and their hands and feet were equally as sparklingly well cared for. Their nails were being let to dry in the warm Seoul sunlight coming in through the wide Salon windows when Dara's phone rang.

She picked up to SooHyun's voice. "Dara, are you with Yuri now? 'Cause the girls and I were thinking . . . what we _really_ need is a little shopping time with Jay's baby sis. We're so jealous of you and SeungMi for having known for so long!"

"We're getting our nails done." Dara replied with a smile, "But we'll be at Handon's in half an hour!"

"What's happening?" Yuri asked, puzzled.

Dara decided to make it a surprise. "You'll see."

Ten minutes later and the intricate purple flowers on Yuri's toes had dried enough to put them back into the boots she was wearing. Twenty minutes after that, she had a mini heart attack as she came face to face with QuaszauR's female leader in front of one of the most popular stores on this side of Seoul.

"Yuri!" SooHyun said excitedly, taking the younger girl into a hug. "We seriously should have done this earlier! Oh you must be in shopping withdrawal by now!"

JiEun and MinJi were just as excited to finally be able to spend time with her _as_ her. Their reaction surprised Yuri immensely. "Aren't you guys mad?"

"Of course not," MinJi said.

JiEun amended, "Well, not at you. Jay's an idiot, and we're horribly furious with him. But you're just a victim, and a pretty one at that. How did we not notice this sooner?"

SooHyun was equally baffled, "I have no idea. You really are a pretty girl, Jay's not half so cute as you are. Oh, the opportunities we've missed because we didn't know who you were!"

"So you're not going to tell anyone?"

Pointing to SooHyun, MinJi replied, "We would tell her, and actually I did."

"And I would tell Yuna, who already knows. Really, I ought to tell the president of JYG . . . but that's leader business, and if you look at the fine print, I'm not _technically_ the leader, so all I really have to do to fulfill my duty is tell Yuna."

"Oh," Yuri said, dumbfounded. With her luck going so well lately, Yuri knew she was bound for a year-long string of rainy days when she got back to the US.

"Now the first thing we have to do is get you into a nice dress," SooHyun said definitively. "That way we get to see you all girlied up, _and_ no one will recognize you, even if they recognize us."

She led the way into Handon's and soon Yuri was sporting a cute sundress that flattered her figure in every way that it had been trampled on before. She even had sparkly new sling back heels that showed off her prettily painted toenails. Jay's clothes were relegated to the shopping bag and Yuri's hair was put into pigtails, which though not her favorite style, successfully got rid of the guy-ish quality of her over grown haircut.

Shopping was something Yuri had sorely missed during her time as Jay and she was delighted to be back in the girly swing of things. And SooHyun, MinJi, Dara, and JiEun were the best shopping companions anyone could ask for; funny, exciting, very complimentary, and still brutally honest. Also, it was wonderful that they were famous popstars; the group was allowed to spend all the time they wanted in the most high-end stores in all of Korea, without appointments or lines, and none of the people that were forced to wait on their account were angry about it. In fact most of them weren't even expecting any kind of reimbursement, but SooHyun made sure that each of her bandmates signed something for the customers they were making wait.

It was quite possibly the most fun Yuri'd had since becoming Jay, well it was tied with the fan-service photo shoot. But really the only thing that could have made the shopping day better would be Donghae joining them. However, that would cause more problems than anything else, but Yuri could still dream.

Among their many fans were people with cameras, of course, and the ladies of QuaszauR posed for almost as many fan-pics as they had professional ones. They did it in good humor though, and Yuri was even able to help by being the one to take a few of the pictures so that the fans could have pictures _with_ their idols, rather than just of them.

Of course there were hundreds of questions about where SeungMi was, and who Yuri was. This was a great day for Yuri because she was allowed to tell the truth for once. SeungMi was out with a special someone, who would be officially revealed by JYG Entertainment at the next press conference, though every single fan could guess who he was. And Yuri was Jay's little sister, really. The only thing that they had to fudge was her stay in Korea: she was just in for the day from Japan to hang out with her brother's bandmates.

Jay meanwhile was not with them. They had ditched the big brother early in the morning. He had Dara's cell phone, because he'd lost his, and was probably just wandering around Seoul like an idiot. He was frequently getting lost, Yuri told one fan who seemed particularly enamored with her brother.

And that was basically how the day went for Yuri, at every store there were new people, new clothes, and new stories. It was delightful! She learned more about the girls in QuaszauR over the course of an afternoon than she had in the weeks she'd been simply observing them. They went out for dinner, a final hurrah for their shopping day.

As they ate, YoungJae was sighing in frustration that they were _still_ not home. He'd been perfectly clear in his note. Six pm. And as seven thirty rolled around . . . five people were still missing.

SeungMi and Jaebi had joined KyuJeon and YeongSaeng on the couch and the four were making enough noise to raise the dead. Donghae had given up his controller to SeungMi as only four could play at a time on this system and he wasn't into it anyway. He was curled up in a bean bag in the corner with his headphones blasting music as he stared out at Seoul's cityscape.

Kihun was on the computer, updating the members about the latest gossip about themselves, including some new fan-fictions that he thought were particularly interesting. JongHyun was half reading over his shoulder and half refereeing for Jinki and Chansung, who were playing table tennis on the breakfast bar using a squished paper cup as the ball and one of each their shoes as the racquets. YoungJae was . . . pacing. It was what he always did when he was anxious; really he was just worried about Jay. The boy seemed disaster prone, _something_ happened wherever he went. Hopefully, Dara was enough to keep him alive, and free of the craziness he carried around with him.

"Hey, guys check this out!" Kihun called from his post at the computer, "Yuri's in town, Jay's _sister_ Yuri!"

"Really?" JongHyun asked leaning down for a closer look. "She is! And she's with our missing girls. Oh and she's pretty, too. Jay wasn't lying."

This had everyone swarming around the screen, except YoungJae, who was still pacing, and Donghae who hadn't heard and wasn't looking in that direction so as to notice the sudden interest from the group. "Jay's not in that picture," Jinki noticed aloud, his voice puzzled.

"You're right," YeongSaeng noted. "Where could he be?"

KyuJeon suggested, "Maybe he's the one that took the picture?"

"Lemme read the article guys!" Kihun pled from beneath the pile of his bandmates that had quite literally jumped on top of him to get a better look at the picture. Shoving them off, Kihun quickly scanned the page. "They ditched him this morning." He laughed, adding, "A quote directly from Yuri is that Jay's, 'probably just wandering around lost'."

"Lost?" YoungJae said, his nerves about to snap.

JongHyun calmed him, "I think she means it endearingly, like he's wandering without direction on purpose."

"And he's lost his cell phone," YoungJae continued to fret. This is why days off weren't any better for him than work days. In fact, a full schedule was probably _less_ stressful than a day spent wondering where all the people he was responsible for had gotten off to.

"He has Dara's," Kihun commented as he continued to scan though the article.

"Someone should call him," YeongSaeng commented with a grin.

Nine heads swiveled in Donghae's direction. He was still just staring out the window, tapping his fingers to the beat of whatever song he was listening to. YeongSaeng kicked his house shoe at him, with perfect aim. When Donghae's head spun to confront whoever had knocked his headphones off, he was frozen in place by YeongSaeng's shout of, "Jay's missing."

"Isn't he with Dara?" Donghae asked, trying to keep his confusion from turning into outright panic.

"Dara's with his sister, and MinJi, and SooHyun, and JiEun; basically everyone we know _except_ Jay," KyuJeon said.

This gave Donghae pause. "Yuri's here?"

"Sort of, according to this she's probably already back in Japan," Kihun explained, having scanned the entire article by this point.

"And Jay's not with her?"  
"Nope, nobody has any idea where he is," YeongSaeng said, making sure to phrase it just so. In his head he counted down the seconds . . . Three . . . Two . . . One.

Donghae's phone was out of his pocket and Dara's speed-dial had been hit the moment he recalled the note Jay had left early that morning.

"Hello?"

Jay's voice sounded surprised as he answered after several long seconds of ringing.

"Where are you?"

"Donghae? I'm . . . around."

Didn't he check caller ID before he answered the phone? He'd certainly taken long enough before he'd finally picked up. The thought was fleeting in Donghae's mind as he asked, " _Where_ around?"

"What's it matter?"

Donghae was at the door getting his shoes on as he said, "I just saw that Yuri's here."

"Yeah . . . um, we had breakfast together." Jay was sounding very strange as he answered the questions.

"And then she ditched you?"

"No, well sorta, actually, I ditched her," Jay said, sounding rather muddled. "I wanted her and Dara to get to know each other . . . so we went shopping, and then we met up with the girls . . . and they wanted me to play dress up with them, so I just kinda wandered off."

Donghae laughed. He could see the scenario playing out easily, SooHyun was pretty over bearing with her shopping companions. Everyone _had_ to try at least three outfits per store, _no_ exceptions. "So where are you now?"

"Around."

"Is that code for lost?" Donghae asked, trying to sound joking even as he worried.

"No."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"Prove it."

"I'm uh, at the 63 Building."

Donghae wasn't sure, Jay hadn't sounded like he knew what he was talking about as he answered. "Are you sure?"

"Kinda, it's a pretty iconic building. I think it'd be hard to confuse with other places around here," Jay said.

Down in the garage, Donghae switched his phone to the earpiece he could wear under his helmet. "Are you being difficult just because it's fun or are you trying to say you don't want company?"

"Company?" Jay said the word like the thought had never crossed his mind.

"You've been alone most of the day, I thought you might be getting bored," Donghae said, hesitating to start his engine. If Jay didn't want company, depending on the reason, he would respect his wishes.

Jay responded slowly. "Bored no. I've been doing a lot today. But your company isn't something I would say no too."

It was all the answer Donghae needed. "I'll be there in ten minutes."

"Make it fifteen!"

"Why?" Donghae asked sending his bike flying out of the garage.

"Fifteen is a better number?"

Jay was such a weird kid. "Okay, fifteen minutes it is."

Donghae would have liked to continue the conversation, but Yuri hung up on him and turned a glare on Dara as the four girls around her giggled uncontrollably. "Why didn't you tell me it was him!" she demanded.

Yuri hadn't had any idea what was happening when Dara suddenly turned toward her in the middle of dinner with her phone, saying, "It's for you."

And because she hadn't been prepared, she'd made herself out to be a total idiot. Dara had been terribly amused, and the other three had caught on quickly as well. "It was more fun this way. Besides it all worked out well, didn't it? You have a date with Donghae in fifteen minutes across the street from where we are now."

"Yuri, you're blushing," SooHyun pointed out, which only made the pink color all the more prominent.

Adamantly, Yuri said, "It's not a date, and fifteen minutes might not be enough, I have to change out of this . . . I'm Jay remember? The pretty dress goes away at midnight for Cinderella."

"But she gets her prince in the end," MinJi countered.

"She also got to meet her prince while actually being a girl," Yuri retorted, getting up hurriedly to head for the bathroom. The others followed her, helping however they could. The pigtails came out and Jay's hair was styled with tap water and a bit of mussing up. The dress was replaced with jeans, a t-shirt, and a jacket, and the heels were exchanged for boots. Yuri watched all of her pretty clothes get folded neatly into the shopping bag they came from as she washed off the make-up she'd gotten to try at one of the high-end stores they had visited that day.

Then she was running across the street and into one of the most iconic buildings in Seoul. She was unendingly grateful that she'd picked a building that was nearby when trying to find a location to give Donghae. Her other thought was the park behind their dorm, but that would have gotten her found out in a few minutes.

Somehow, she managed to make it up to the top floor, find a seat by the window, put her headphones in her ears and look like she'd been sitting there for hours before Donghae stepped out of the elevator. She couldn't stop a bright smile from spreading across her face when she saw him. He returned the grin and was sitting by her at the window within a few seconds.

"What song are you listening too?" he asked.

"Um, Dara's solo," Yuri replied, checking the screen to make sure.

"Have you eaten yet, you seem like you very well could have forgotten," Donghae said, putting a hand to Jay's forehead to see if he had a fever.

Yuri brushed his hand away. "I'm not sick, I'm just distracted. I had dinner before coming here," she said.

"Why are you distracted?"

"Have _you_ eaten?"

"You've been wondering all day if I've eaten?"

Yuri shook her head and swatted at Donghae. "No you idiot, I meant since you asked you must be hungry, right?"

"Oh, little mind-reader we have here," Donghae replied. "Really, I'm good. I've been snacking all day."

"On what?"

Genuinely unable to recall exactly what he had been eating all day, he said, "This and that, just what we have at home."

"That is not healthy," Yuri said decisively. Pulling her headphones out of her ears entirely, she shoved them in a pocket and marched off.

Donghae followed in bewilderment. "Where are you going?"

"To get you some decent food!"

The best thing about living in the city, especially one like Seoul, was that there was always food to be had. Some of the best came from street markets like the one Yuri had wandered through with the girls of QuaszauR earlier that day, and many of these markets were open late into the night. It was fairly early yet though, so the street was crowded as she led Donghae through. There were nets of white Christmas tree lights hanging overhead to light the street up. It was just enough to cast a pretty glow without being so much that Yuri was too afraid of the undisguised Donghae being recognized.

Yuri dragged him through the market for an hour. Buying handfuls of a million different kinds of fruit and vegetables at nearly every stall and snacking on them as they made their way to the next spot with a tasty treat, both Donghae and Yuri got in their week's worth of healthy foods. For Donghae, it was the healthiest he'd eaten since joining JYG.

"You've had six and a half _years_ of horrible habits?" Yuri asked in disbelief. "How come you're not dead, or look like Mickey Z?"

"With all the work I do? Do you know how many _calories_ go into training? I don't think I could end up like Mickey Z if I _tried_ ," Donghae said. "And as for living: I don't starve myself, I just eat what's around to be eaten. Kihun usually keeps the flow of good food pretty constant."

Yuri laughed. "If not for that guy you'd all die!"

"What about you? You're one of us too," Donghae pointed out as he tossed a grape into Yuri's mouth.

Chewing, she replied, "My sister has started sending me text messages every two hours to remind me to eat well."

"Is that why you lost your phone?"

"I set it down somewhere because I couldn't take it anymore . . ." Yuri said, giving Donghae a strawberry. "Though, the next time she's in Korea she's vowed to strap it to my wrist."

It took Donghae a few seconds to smush the strawberry up enough to ask, "And when would that be?"

"I don't know," Yuri said honestly. It would depend on what SooHyun could make happen in terms of days off, because when the real Jay got back Yuri would have to go away for a while. And even if another day off with the girls _did_ come up before then Donghae wouldn't be able to join them.

Not prying was always the better option, but Donghae couldn't stop himself from asking, "Does it have something to do with the mysterious person in the hospital? I know you've been worried for a while."

Yuri had known he'd heard part of at least one of her conversations with Jay, but she wasn't sure how much _else_ he knew about the situation and her stomach dropped as the weight of worry settled into it. "Yeah, kinda," she said slowly, watching him carefully for his reaction.

He just kept strolling along popping one of the grapes in his hand into his mouth as he nodded. "You two seem pretty close to this person," Donghae mentioned. It was the closest he'd come to prying into the private affairs of the person he was worried about in years, but he just couldn't make any sense of the situation and he didn't think he'd be of much help if he was left in the dark forever.

Yuri kept her lips sealed.

The seconds ticked by slowly as she panicked and Donghae mulled over his next move. Jay had shut down, like he always did when _anyone_ asked something about his personal life. Donghae should have expected it; of all the members of QuaszauR, Jay had always been the one most difficult to console like this. The others would eventually confess their worries before the weight of carrying whatever it was crushed them. Jay had never once done that.

Of course, Jay had never once been under Donghae's acute care either. For the most part, Jay could take care of himself. Before he'd always been laughing and joking with Jinki and Chansung, so Donghae had believed he was coping with everything perfectly well. But since his debut . . . he'd closed off from the group a lot, and he'd lost so much of what his training should have carved into his bones. It really seemed that Jay was running on a hopeless dream and raw talent right now, rather than sheer effort and the brutal drillings of JYG training.

Donghae hadn't been too concerned about it in the beginning, but now he was willing to admit that he was well and truly worried.

"You don't _have_ to tell me what's going on," he forced himself to say. "Just don't lie to me and gloss things over like they're fine, okay?"

Yuri kept her lips air-locked, refusing to look even in Donghae's general direction. She felt horribly guilty for not explaining the whole situation outright, but it just didn't feel like telling him _now_ would do anyone good.

The situation was salvaged when Donghae's phone rang.

"Ah, YoungJae, what is it?" he asked.

The leader was shuffling papers as he replied, "We apparently start filming for our variety shows tomorrow. Action has four episodes of _Sunny Dae_ , and you have to be on set by eight. Yuna's helping SooHyun with the girls' thing; it's in complete chaos right now. And I'm busy with Mellow so you're pretty much gonna be on your own." He added inspiringly, " _Don't screw this up_."

"You have so much faith in me," Donghae commented.

"You know how JongHyun is," YoungJae countered. "He may be leader, but he's far too nice about it. He'll let you do whatever you want and then do whatever it takes to pick up the slack himself."

"I know, don't worry. I'll make sure we all behave." He hung up and called out to get Jay's attention which had wandered to a stand selling pineapples.

Yuri hadn't known they sold fresh pineapples in Korea . . . Her attention though was easily captured by Donghae.

"Come on, we've been called back. We have filming in the morning."

If it were possible, Yuri's stomach sank even further at the thought. "Filming? Again? What for?"

"Do you remember _anything_ we were supposed to do this week?" Donghae said, ruffling Jay's hair. He was doing that a lot he noticed, but Jay's hair really lent itself well to the action. "The variety shows? We're promoting the subgroups by having them make appearances on popular television shows, remember?"

Yuri's face reflected her horror at the thought of another round of filming like what they had gone through for the music video. Donghae threw a grape perfectly into her gaping mouth. The sudden taste woke her up enough to hear as Donghae said, "Relax. It's fun; and you've done variety shows before. One recording, no retakes unless something really bad happens, and literally, we play games all day. No stress."

Yuri's expression only changed fractionally. Having experience under your belt only worked if it was _your_ belt. That Jay had done this before only made it harder on Yuri to do well, she needed to maintain her cover.

"Come, on," Donghae said grabbing Jay's arm and dragging him back towards the 63 Building. "We'll make a lap of the block first if you're that stressed out about it."

Yuri pulled her arm free. "You came on the bike?"

"Of course, I only use YeongSaeng's car when I'm with MinYeon."

Yuri supposed she shouldn't have been surprised. There was no way he would ever get the prissy Miss MinYeon onto the beast, and for his girlfriend, of course he would make allowances. Still, for some reason she hadn't been expecting it, and hearing it felt like a punch in the stomach.

When Donghae tossed the helmet to her, she still felt a bit queasy. That feeling however was probably more related to having to get on the motorcycle again rather than crush-related jealousy. With equal parts shyness and fear suppressing her voice, Yuri squeaked, "Uh, Donghae-hyungnim? Can I ride in front again?"

He grinned, scooting backwards as he teased, "Scaredy cat."

Blushing furiously, Yuri turned away, even though her face was under the protection of her helmet's dark visor. Donghae grabbed her hand and pulled her closer. "Get on. I bet JongHyun's starting a movie as we speak."

"Movie?"

As Yuri clambered on in front of him, Donghae replied, "Whenever we have a full schedule ahead of us, where we won't get to see everyone for a while, he plays a movie on the last night we do have together. Now, hang on."

Donghae slid his arms around Yuri and sent the bike flying over the tarmac. Yuri wasn't half as terrified as she'd been the first time, or the second. In fact it was more exhilarating than anything, and only partly due to Donghae's close contact.


	9. A Little More Meddling

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yuri gets overly involved in matchmaking another pair of bandmates, or two, and some one else starts meddling into the thing she and Donghae are developing...

The popstar had been right, when Yuri and Donghae arrived in the dorm, the lights were down and the entire band was gathered around the television. The movie was halfway over by the time they joined the group, but adjustments were quickly made to allow them to sit comfortably. Yuri had never seen the movie before, but between Dara, Jaebi, and SeungMi she was able to grasp the basics of the plot.

When the movie finished up, YoungJae threatened them with a vague, "You'd better be right on time wherever you need to be tomorrow." He made sure each of them nodded in response to his command and then headed off to bed. The rest of the band excluding YeongSaeng, KyuJeon, Donghae, Dara, and Yuri followed soon after him.

The five were planning on restarting the movie, to let Yuri see it from the beginning. Both KyuJeon and Dara asserted that this was necessary, hearing about the beginning, and _seeing_ it were entirely different things. Donghae relented, but he pointed accusingly at Yuri, saying, "But first you have to take a shower! Dara, how many shops did you manage to drag him through? The perfume smell is _never_ going to come out of those clothes."

He and Dara began bickering about how it wasn't that bad as Donghae pushed Yuri off. She grabbed her pajamas as Dara announced that she was going to bed and then scrambled though her shower. She wasn't sure if KyuJeon was planning on watching the _whole_ movie again or if they were just going to watch up to the part where Donghae and she had joined in. Either way, it would take a while and they had to get up in the morning.

Yuri didn't dry her hair off very well, choosing to wrap a towel around her shoulders and head out dripping instead. She wanted to get the movie going as quickly as possible because she hated the thought of the others just waiting for her. She helped KyuJeon fiddle with the player, getting the DVD to restart from the beginning. The two met fairly easily with success and jumped on the couch to watch the previews as Donghae and YeongSaeng whipped up another batch of popcorn.

"How's MinYeon reacting?" YeongSaeng asked as he leaned over the breakfast bar from inside the kitchen.

Sitting on the opposite side of the counter from him but facing the same direction, Donghae responded, "Reacting to what?"

Jerking his chin in the direction of KyuJeon and Jay, who were involved in a round of rock paper scissors to decide who would get to hold the remote, YeongSaeng clarified, "To this thing you've got going on with Jay."

"What thing?" Donghae asked, genuinely puzzled.

YeongSaeng arched his eyebrow pointedly. "Exactly how much do you have to do for him before you finally realize that you're taking better care of him than you are of yourself?"

Donghae shrugged. "It's not like this kind of thing is news for me. I was worse with SeungMi; do you have any idea how many teddy bears I had to buy before I could get that girl to smile?"

"Did you ever let her on your precious motorcycle? Have you even let any of us touch it before?" YeongSaeng said, counting off on his fingers the times Jay'd been granted the privilege as he reminded, "There was the first day of the music video filming; and the ride home, and you stopped somewhere, so I'm counting that as two; and then there's today . . . Whereas if any of _us_ even looks at it we have to get an earful from you about how it's like your childhood dog or something."

"It's my bike, I don't like you guys messing with it," Donghae responded.

"And _he's_ not one of us meddlesome bandmates?"

Donghae laughed. "Jay's terrified of the thing. He won't go within twenty feet of it if I'm not right there with him. I don't have to worry about him messing it up."

"Uh-huh," YeongSaeng said with a look that spoke volumes. "I wasn't going to mention the hat thing . . . or the coffee and breakfast thing . . . or the staying up late waiting thing . . . or the thing about how you spend more time with each other than you do with your girlfriends . . . but I will if you make me."

Donghae still just brushed him off. "It's nothing. If anything, it's just like how the others see you and KyuJeon."

"That is a supreme failure of an example to prove your point," YeongSaeng said with a grin. "And you know it." He turned away from his best friend as he spoke, prompted by the sound of the beep, to pull the now hugely inflated bag of popcorn out of the microwave.

"If you never tell him anything, nothing will happen, and my point stands," Donghae retorted, leaning over the counter and snatching the bag out of YeongSaeng's hands.

He grabbed a handful of the warm kernels and dumped it into his mouth as he crossed to the common room's little television alcove. Coming up behind Jay, Donghae dropped the bag into his lap. Jay caught it with an excited yelp, pleased that he'd gotten _something_ though he'd lost the duel for the remote.

He and KyuJeon were seated in the dead center of the couch, jostling each other for the best position as they nabbed some popcorn. YeongSaeng took the arm seat on KyuJeon's side and looked expectantly at Donghae as the feature film began to roll. Donghae ignored him and snatched the towel off of Jay's shoulders. "You're supposed to dry off with these," he said, adding, "They don't work well as fashion statements." He ran it roughly over Jay's head, making him fight both KyuJeon and Donghae to see the movie they had suggested he watch. YeongSaeng just watched in open amusement.

Eventually, Donghae was satisfied that Jay's hair wouldn't make him catch a cold during the two hours he would be staying up to finish the movie and took his seat at the couch's other arm. They went all the way through the movie again with no mishap other than a spat of popcorn throwing that spontaneously broke out during the scene where the main characters confessed their feelings to each other. It was a touching scene that no one paid any attention to as they fired off whatever ammo they had in their hands and furiously reached for more. No one was quite sure who started it, and in much the same mysterious way, it ended suddenly and wasn't repeated as the movie rolled on.

Then off to bed it was with an early morning wake up call.

It wasn't too bad; Yuri was able to wake up at her regular time without any problems. Donghae met her in the café and the pair grabbed enough coffee to wake the other members of Action up before seven. JongHyun and Chansung woke up easily and were perfectly awake with the administration of caffeine to their systems. YeongSaeng on the other hand, was resistant to the prodding of the others.

Since KyuJeon didn't need to wake up until noon, he'd stayed up extra late with YeongSaeng. This wasn't an insurmountable problem, but it meant that no one was willing to let YeongSaeng drive. JongHyun took the role, mentioning that his car had enough room for the five of them. Chansung was more than willing to let him drive, but he brought up that room for five was hardly necessary as Donghae would be on his bike.

"And Jay'll be with him," YeongSaeng added with a smirk.

Donghae ignored his friend and slung an arm around Jay's shoulders as the group made their way out to the garage. "You never know, he could be fed up with the thing. So, Jay, wanna ride with them? Or on the bike?"

"The bike's good," Yuri replied, ducking her head a bit. She wasn't sure who was being teased here, as YeongSaeng's smirk seemed to be directed at Donghae, though his was clearly directed at her. The motorcycle was still terrifying to her, but her crush on Donghae was getting worse, and it was now strong enough to over-ride the fear for the most part.

Yuri had to ride on the back of the motorcycle this time, because driving with her in front was doable, but not particularly easy. In the traffic of rush hour, it was safest to let Donghae have all the control he could get over the behemoth.

He'd been right though, the variety show was fun. It was literally a full day of games. One of them was a bit nerve wracking, the punishment for losing a round of 'Catch the Rat' being that one of the other band members got to make a cut in the loser's T-shirt. Donghae's abs were exposed, JongHyun's back, YeongSaeng's shoulder and collarbone; and Chansung lost both of his sleeves and the entire lower half of his T-shirt because he was really bad at the game. Yuri managed to scrape through unscathed by sheer will of concentration that the MC, Kim DaeSung, was massively impressed with.

Overall though, the set-time during the week of shooting was nothing but laughs. Between the games were mini games that went like questions and answer sessions, but if one of the other members thought you were lying they would press a button and water would shoot out of the floor at you. There were also a few, slightly more serious question and answer rounds, but only one a day. They shot four episodes, and two mini episodes, of the show _Sunny Dae_. Each episode took a full day to film, but the mini ones only took half the day.

Their first half day off came after two full days of shooting. They were released into the pretty Seoul sunlight at just after two, which unfortunately didn't coincide with any of the other groups' allotted free time. They managed however by playing in street fountains that wouldn't fit more than the five of them comfortably. Chansung managed to find a vendor that sold containers of bubbles, which amused them for the hours until the girls got out of their filming session.

Though the band's different factions certainly saw less of each other during the week spent in filming the variety shows, it wasn't like they _never_ saw each other. Though they had feared there would be no contact between subgroups, they all still slept in the same dorm, regardless of how late some got in. While they had been working to promote some of their solo stuff, certain members had gone to Japan or China for a full month of not seeing the others. This was infinitely preferable.

The girls came home and went for a mid-evening stroll of the park behind the dorms with the guys of Action. YeongSaeng and Donghae spent the walk teaching Jay how to be a better boyfriend and criticizing how he was doing as they flirted with Dara. SeungMi and Jaebi were off in their own little world; a world that somehow involved ice cream, though Yuri was sure no vendor they had passed in the park had been selling any. JongHyun and SooHyun were talking about leaderly things that no one else was even remotely interested in, though MinJi tagged along regardless.

That left Chansung and JiEun to their own devices. Yuri couldn't help but notice how attentive Action's lead singer was to Sweet's lead dancer, especially as his actions were occasionally cited by YeongSaeng or Donghae to show Jay what he was doing wrong. And MinJi, Yuri noticed, was keeping well out of their way. She even joined up with the group critiquing Jay on his boyfriend behavior, though she knew perfectly well that Yuri didn't actually need any advice on the subject.

Because of this, MinJi was the first person Yuri went to when they went inside for the night. MinJi decided that vanilla yogurt made for a good before bed snack and Yuri joined her in the kitchen as she was mixing in some chocolate chips. It actually sounded pretty tasty, so Yuri whipped up her own batch as she broached the subject.

She didn't tiptoe around the issue at all. "What's with Chansung and JiEun?"  
"What?" MinJi asked though a mouthful of yogurt.

Yuri pressed, "You were awfully keen to stay out of their way earlier."

"Oh, that," MinJi squeaked, blushing a bit. "Yeah . . . they're sort of together, but not really. It's kind of like understood that they're a couple, but no one's allowed to talk about it because it's technically not official."

"Like Jaebi and SeungMi?"

"Sorta, but not really," MinJi replied looking out into the common room where SooHyun, SeungMi, and JiEun were on the couch watching as Dara helped DongHae cheat at some card game the guys had started on the floor.

"What do you mean 'not really'?" Yuri asked, her interest officially piqued.

MinJi took her time in answering. She wanted to accurately relay the nature of the relationship without sparking another matchmaking incident. "They've been like that for years, but it's not so much a shy, crushy, _like -_ like kind of thing, as a we've-been-friends-forever thing that's sorta spiraled away. They don't actually know how much they really like each other."

"Ah," Yuri said nodding. After pouring rather than spooning a large portion of her wonderfully tasty snack into her mouth Yuri mumbled in a questioning voice, "So what they need isn't so much a shock or even a push, they need a nudge."

"Please don't say you have an idea," MinJi whimpered.

Yuri scraped out the last of her yogurt and popped the spoon into her mouth, her lips pressed together in a smug smile. She looked at MinJi in silence that spoke volumes of what MinJi did not want to hear.

"You guys have to wake up early tomorrow, right?"

"Maybe," MinJi said slowly.

"That's all I needed," Yuri said sweetly. She threw her yogurt cup away and skipped off to JiEun's room. Her plan was actually made all the easier for her by the person who would be subjected to it. JiEun stored all of her shoes on the shelves at the top of her closets, places she couldn't possibly reach without the aid of a stepstool which was placed conveniently in the center of each closet.

Without touching anything, Yuri slipped back outside and then into her own room. After grabbing her pajamas she took a quick shower and headed over to watch the card game. She was watched closely by MinJi, SeungMi, JiEun, and SooHyun. Dara sidled up to her and slipped an arm around her waist saying. "You're scheming, aren't you?"

With Donghae watching to make sure Yuri performed the appropriate reaction, Yuri couldn't push Dara away. Instead she slung an arm around Dara's shoulders, whispering in her ear, "Maybe . . . Don't worry, it's nothing. In fact if something actually happens between those two because of this, I'll be very surprised."

"Because of what?"

"You'll see," Yuri said, releasing her with a wink that Donghae highly approved of.

Yuri kicked YeongSaeng and JongHyun aside so that she could join the circle. She was directly across from Donghae as they dealt her in. The five girls watched her nervously the entire time, but eventually they had to go to bed, as they needed to get up really early in the morning.

Once they were safely away, Yuri asked, "Hey Chansung, what kind of coffee do you want tomorrow? It's so annoying trying to figure out what you want because you can't wake up and get it yourself!"

"What's this 'can't wake up' thing? I simply choose to stay in bed and let you and Donghae fetch me caffeine," Chansung countered.

"Really? Prove it!"

"How?"

Yuri smirked. "Get up before me, and bring me an iced mocha."

Chansung considered the proposition carefully for a minute. "When do you get up?"

"Five."

He balked. "That's almost as early as the girls have to get up!"

"So?" Seeing him about to refuse, Yuri added, "Beat me to caffeine this once and I swear I'll never complain about your sleeping habits again." This was enough to tempt him, but not quite enough to get him to take the deal. "If you don't beat me I'm gonna complain everyday and never get you coffee again, and I won't let Donghae get you any either."

"Fine, I'll get your stupid mocha," Chansung relented.

Playing her last card and successfully ending the game, Yuri said, "I'm looking forward to it. Anyone up for another round?"

Chansung was out. He made his way to his room grumbling about how he had to get up so early for such a stupid reason. JongHyun was out too, but he went to bed because he usually turned in earlier than most of the others.

That left YeongSaeng to shuffle, Donghae to lose every round, and Yuri to win. Overall, it was a very predictable bought of card gaming, but it was still fun. When the appeal of card game was beginning to wane Yuri decided to make hot chocolate. "Do you guys want some?"

When they nodded she headed off to the kitchen. Pulling three mugs out of the cabinet and putting just enough water on to heat up, Yuri mixed a bit of coffee creamer into the cups after she dumped in the packets of powder. Premixing with cream always made the mixture taste better. The wait for the water to heat up wasn't too long, but it was still boring, and Yuri jumped gratefully into action when the timer dinged.

The fruits of her patience nearly tumbled to the kitchen floor when she turned around to meet Donghae, bent down to stare her in the face with an adorable smirk. "You're scheming," he said as he watched Jay fight to keep the three mugs perfectly level as he reeled from Donghae's sudden nearness.

"What are you talking about?"

"That thing with Chansung." YeongSaeng appeared on Yuri's other side and she again had to fight gravity to keep the hot chocolate inside the mugs. "You're perfectly fine ordering coffee for him, and he really doesn't care what you get him. And you know all of this."

Yuri grinned at him. "Yes, I am scheming, to get him out of bed more than ten minutes before filming starts."

"There is definitely more going on here," Donghae said, reaching around her to grab one of the hot chocolate mugs.

"What makes you say that?" Yuri retorted, handing YeongSaeng his mug.

As Yuri sipped at the beverage left in her hand, YeongSaeng asked, "Why are you up so late?"

"Why are _you_ up so late?" she countered.

With a shrug, YeongSaeng replied, "No reason."

"Other than that you're waiting for KyuJeon to get home," Yuri mentioned.

"Am I?"

Yuri nodded. "You like him," she said slowly, wondering how far she ought to push this. KyuJeon had expressly said he didn't want her to tell YeongSaeng of his feelings, but this wasn't about KyuJeon at the moment. And Yuri was curious . . . _and_ it was successfully distracting the boys from her plot with Chansung.

Luckily, YeongSaeng didn't get mad at her for figuring it out. Actually, he was quite impressed; Jay hadn't seemed the type for close observations or deductions. But he wasn't willing to admit everything just yet. "And how do you figure that?"

"It's pretty obvious," Yuri said with a shrug.

Donghae laughed. "Lookie here, folks. He's not as dumb as he looks!"

"Hey!" Yuri protested swatting at him.

He fended off her playful strikes with his hot chocolate mug, saying, "I told you that people were going to start figuring things out if you weren't careful."

"Even you would never have guessed that it'd be Jay," YeongSaeng countered.

"I take it that you're not gonna try the whole deny everything route," Yuri commented.

"What good would that do me?"

Donghae added, "Jaebi and SeungMi took that path, and just look at what you did to them! I don't think anyone's foolish enough to try that with you again."

"Hey, they ended up happily together," Yuri protested.

"KyuJeon's not like that, like either of them, he wouldn't react in the same way," YeongSaeng said softly.

Yuri groaned. "Has it ever occurred to _anyone_ that the reason I did what I did with them was specifically _because_ they would act that way? Or that I did it with _them_ because only they would act that way? Everyone's different, which means that everyone falls in love differently, and everyone has to be pushed to admit it differently."

Donghae grinned in a particularly mischievous manner that made Yuri smile too. "Got it, so what's the plan this time?"

"And what does Chansung have to do with it?"

"Chansung has nothing to do with anything related to you," Yuri said definitively.

"JiEun," Donghae caught on. "You're planning to set them up somehow, aren't you?"

Yuri gave him a sideways glance. "It took you this long to figure that much out?"

YeongSaeng shook his head saying, "Will you at least give us a little bit of a heads up? I don't want to have to get mad at you again for no reason."

Yuri drained the last of the hot chocolate from the mug in her hand in one huge, straining gulp. Placing it in the sink, she said simply, "If you want to watch the show you'd better get up early."

She went to her room and sat in the dark for an hour as she waited for Donghae and YeongSaeng to go to bed. Once she was sure they were at least in their rooms for the night, she slipped out and into JiEun's room, the closets, more specifically. She pilfered the step stools from each of them and slipped out after making sure that the forward thinking young woman hadn't already taken down a pair in preparation for her early morning. Then just for good measure, she slipped into the rooms of the rest of QuaszauR Sweet, stealing any stepstool she could find. The fruits of her late-night labor made their way under the bed of YoungJae, who was thankfully quite the heavy sleeper as his door creaked despite Yuri's efforts to keep it quiet.

Donghae, who was watching the proceedings from the perfect vantage point that was just inside his bedroom door, couldn't for the life of him figure out Jay's plan. Wondering seriously if he should put a stop to the plot, Donghae saw Jay slip back into his own room, appearing to be ready to stay there for the rest of the night. He did not want another incident, as much for Jay's sake as for his own. Regardless of how things had turned out in the end, everyone had dealt with a pretty heavy emotional blow, and Jay had faced the back lash of all of it.

It would probably be best to stop this before it got out of control, but Donghae wanted to wait a bit longer. Jay had after all gotten Jaebi and SeungMi to be happily together, and now they were so significantly relaxed that the stress they had been feeling leading up to the catharsis was even more obvious. Jay's actions had been good for them in the long run, so just maybe the same would hold true for Chansung and JiEun.

However, Donghae wasn't planning on just letting Jay run this scheme without any kind of supervision. He went to bed only after setting his alarm to wake him close to the ridiculously early hour the girls were getting up at. One night with hardly any sleep wouldn't be too bad; while they were promoting, such was the daily routine and Donghae had long gotten used to it.

Of course, being used to suffering through the early mornings didn't mean he liked them. He woke bleary eyed and slightly less than coordinated a mere four hours after having finally turned in. On a normal day he would have made the quick walk over to the coffee house to get some caffeine into his bloodstream, but he didn't want to interfere in Jay's little charade. Crashing down heavily at the breakfast bar, he watched though sleepy eyes as the girls rushed back and forth in various stages of ready.

"You're up early, considering that you don't have to be anywhere for hours," SooHyun mentioned, sitting down beside him as she began to unwind some curlers from her hair.

"Aren't the stylists supposed to be the ones that mess with your hair?" Donghae said, choosing to ignore the implied question rather than address the issue she was trying to get at.

The leader waved his confusion away. "We aren't on a variety show that's filmed in a studio, we go places like day cares and hospitals and other places that would be inconvenienced by an army of hair and make-up artists. _We_ have to wake up early enough to do it ourselves. _You_ have the luxury of sleeping in. And yet here you are."

"I was wondering why you girls had to wake up so early!" Donghae replied, stifling a yawn, "I wanted to watch the show."

SooHyun contemplated trying again for the subtle approach, but she decided that she didn't have time for that. "This is about Jay, isn't it? What's his plan this time? You know, JiEun was tossing and turning all night with worry. I used half a tube of concealer covering up the dark circles under her eyes!"

"I've heard that surprises work better when less people know about them," Donghae commented. "But it seems like the only person who doesn't know is Chansung."

"Sorta, I mean we know that something's up, but even we don't really _know_ about the surprise," YeongSaeng jumped in. He leaned over the breakfast bar from the kitchen side, practically laying on the countertop so that his shoulders came right between those of his two bandmates as he fought the urge to close his eyes and go back to sleep where he stooped.

SooHyun nodded. "I think the only leg up we've got on this one is that we know what Jay's capable of," she admitted with worry, her thoughts clearly where everyone else's were, on his stunt with Jaebi and SeungMi.

"He won't do something that dramatic again," Donghae said with certainty. "He doesn't want us to get mad at him again more than we don't want to get mad."

"Let's hope so," SooHyun said quietly as Jay wandered into the common room wearing a sleepy expression and a dingy sweatshirt four sizes too large for him.

Even as the situation they were facing was grave, Donghae found himself unable to resist the smile tugging at his lips as Jay rubbed at his head with a hand encased in the sweatshirt's oversized sleeve. The young singer mustered a smile when he found SooHyun, YeongSaeng, and Donghae sitting at the breakfast bar. The leader got up as he walked over, saying to her sleepy companions, "I have to finish getting ready; try not to break anything." Even in their tired state, the boys didn't miss her meaning.

Jay took the leader's newly vacant seat, and sleepily propped himself up on the breakfast bar looking towards the door. "Has Chansung left yet?"

"He wasn't in his room when I checked," YeongSaeng mentioned, his grin spreading when Donghae tried fruitlessly to get the collar of Jay's sweatshirt to sit on his shoulder instead of hanging halfway down his arm. Underneath the dark grey of the sweatshirt, paler grey material of some sort of T-Shirt was exposed, along with the even paler color of the skin wrapped around Jay's strikingly delicate collarbones.

Donghae quickly gave up trying to get the sweatshirt to sit properly, seeing as the enormous sweatshirt could easily fall off both shoulders if it felt like it, and settled for combing out the worst of the knots in Jay's hair with his fingers as he said, "You've got us all so excited about this little scheme, even YeongSaeng's up early."

"And still without caffeine, I might mention," YeongSaeng grumbled.

"Not to worry, I've got your usual, right here," Chansung said with a chipper grin as he waltzed in. He not only had the iced caramel latte that YeongSaeng had grown attached to recently, but also the mochas Donghae and Jay favored. _And_ he'd picked up some caffeine for the girls too. Sipping triumphantly on his frappechino, Chansung passed the rest of the drinks out; leaving JongHyun's icy treat on the counter, knowing he'd be up soon enough.

He saved Jay's mocha for last, placing it in the sleepy singer's hands with a smug smile. Jay took the hint, saying, "I bow down before your morning managing abilities."

Chansung was about to reply when a frustrated JiEun stormed into the common room, towing a very confused Jinki by the ear behind her. "SooHyun-unnie! He won't tell me where he hid them! They aren't under his bed like last time!"

"Calm down," SooHyun soothed, as she tried to wrestle Dara's hair into what she considered an acceptable up-do. "We don't have to leave for another half hour and it only takes you a minute to get your shoes on. I can help you in just a bit, but I have to finish Dara's hair first. You're ready to go otherwise aren't you?"

JiEun nodded, reluctantly releasing her grip on Jinki's ear. Donghae arched an eyebrow, he'd forgotten the time Jinki had stolen all the step stools. By the looks of the amused, and definitely surprised, smile Jay was wearing, he hadn't intended to blame the vanishings on Jinki.

For his part, Jinki was still too asleep to really process any of what was happening and proceeded to stumble back to the relative safety of his room when JiEun released him.

Jay didn't let JiEun flounder for long. "What's wrong?"

Suspicious of Jay's motives for anything at this point, JiEun warily answered, "Jinki stole all the step stools again, and now I can't reach the shoes I need."

"I'll see if I can help," Jay said immediately sliding off his seat at the breakfast bar. JiEun gave him a suspicious glance, but he responded only with a cheerful smile so she led him towards her room.

When he was halfway down the hall, he turned back, calling, "Morning Master Hyungnim! You're tall, you should come too, I might not be able to reach the right ones."

It was a well played move, Donghae thought to himself as Chansung hurried to JiEun. Amid the teasing from Jay and the eagerness to help JiEun, there hadn't been any room in Chansung's unsuspecting mind for doubt of the younger boy's intentions to settle.

Yuri was thrilled that this was working so well, she'd been sure something would have gone wrong by now. Though, she would have to remember to make it up to Jinki later, she hadn't known the trickster had done something like this before.

Her next move was pretty easy. JiEun pointed out the shoes she wanted, Jay showed that he couldn't reach them, and Chansung stepped into the closet to replace him. It went without a hitch and Yuri slipped out of the small room just as Chansung wrapped his fingers around the desired box. A second later the pair inside the walk-in closet realized that the door had been closed, and that it was impossible to open.

Yuri sat with a smug smile, balanced on a chair that had been leaned under the handle at such an angle so as to successfully jam it closed while there was weight on it. The whole 'stick a chair under the handle to blockade the door and then just walk away' thing may have just been something seen in the realm of cartoons, but the physics of how to make it work for real was something Yuri had learned in her first year of University.

As Chansung struggled against her lightweight figure as it pressed a chair into the door and the friction of the carpeting, Yuri said in a tone of the most obviously fake concern, "Oh no, it seems the door has jammed. Whatever shall we do?"

Inside, the well-lit closet was large enough for Chansung and JiEun to lounge in complete comfort. This wasn't some ill-devised scheme to force them into an awkward situation. Rather, the hope was that knowing that _Jay_ had been the one to design the set-up, after having meddled in a similarly audacious way with Dara's photo-shoot, and Jaebi's relationship with SeungMi, that they would at least _begin_ to connect the dots.

JiEun, having already known that Yuri was plotting something, was already figuring it out. "Jay you idiot! It's not like that at all, now let us out!"

"I can't, the door is clearly stuck. This is a circumstance well beyond my control," Yuri replied, again way overly acted.

Chansung gave one last push against the door, one that very nearly toppled Yuri from her perch, but when it ultimately failed to wedge the door open, he gave up with a heavy sigh. "Why on earth would Jay do something like this?" He wondered loudly, "Doesn't he know you have somewhere to be soon?"

"Since when has Jay obeyed the status quo? All of his stunts have been completely off the wall!" JiEun mentioned, her voice giving away that she was much more stressed than the obvious situation warranted.

Chansung noticed the strain and was instantly more attentive. "Don't worry, he won't make you late, and SooHyun will have him scrubbing floors for a week for making you worry like this."

Outside, Yuri rolled her eyes. "Why doesn't it _ever_ occur to people that I do things for a reason? Hmmm? Things would be so much simpler if people realized that there's a point to everything." This statement got Chansung thinking, as Yuri had known it would. She hadn't really meant to push them like that, but it didn't seem like it would be too catastrophic. Still to prevent her from taking things any further she said, "I'm gonna go get some help for this door thing, I'll be back in a few minutes."

She waited a moment to see if Chansung would try the door again, knowing her resistance would be gone. When he didn't immediately jump to open the door, she slipped back into the common room where YeongSaeng, Dara, and Donghae were waiting for her. JongHyun had woken up too, though he was busy helping SooHyun finish up getting the other girls ready.

"What happened?" Dara asked immediately.

"Nothin'," Yuri said with a grin.

"Where are they?"

"Nowhere." She added with a glance at SooHyun, whose eyes were on the common room clock, "I'm gonna just go outside for a bit. If SooHyun starts freaking out about how late it's getting, you should probably go let JiEun out of the closet."

With that she walked off leaving her audience a bit dazed. As she slipped quietly out the door with her mocha in hand, she heard YeongSaeng say, "He locked them in the closet?"

Yuri wandered around outside, sticking to the small park in front of the dorms, rather than heading out to the one a block behind it. That one would distract her from the time and she refused to make everyone worry because she'd gotten lost again. While she was waiting for something to happen however, she pulled out her phone and began texting her brother.

His phone was still off and it was much too early to give his hospital room a call, but doing something was more fun, and less nerve wracking, than just waiting around. After a little while, a commotion at the building's doors caught her attention. Yuna was leading the girls out to the van they were taking for the day. JiEun was very bubbly, Yuri noticed. SooHyun spotted her across the little park and heaved a sigh. The leader was very frustrated with Yuri's actions, but she couldn't find a way to be mad at the girl and went back to helping Yuna get the girls of Sweet into the van.

Sticking her phone back into her pocket, Yuri stood, stretching as the van pulled out of the loop in front of the dorm building. She was about to head back up when she spotted Donghae walking towards her. "If you want to go up now, you do so at your own risk. Chansung's a bit . . . peeved."

Yuri sat back down.

Donghae laughed. "Don't worry, he's not really mad. You just surprised him, that's all. He's not sure yet if he likes this new spin on his relationship with JiEun."

"Does that mean . . . ?"

"They aren't officially together, if that's what you're asking," Donghae said. "Not yet, at least."

Yuri nodded, she hadn't expected revolutionary change. "JiEun looked awfully happy, though," she mentioned.

"Yeah, but JiEun isn't the one you're going to have to spend the rest of the day with," Donghae countered. "Have you eaten breakfast yet?"

Yuri actually had to think for a second before she remembered that she'd made Chansung get the coffee this morning and therefore hadn't gone to the café yet. Donghae didn't give his bandmate time to answer, heading off towards the parking garage and towing Jay by the arm behind him. "Do you have decent clothes on under this horrible sweatshirt?"

"Just a t-shirt," Yuri said, stumbling along as she was towed backwards by Donghae. "Where are we going?"

"We're getting breakfast," Donghae replied, grabbing Jay's helmet from the box beside the motorcycle. The machine had come with two sets of safety gear, but Donghae had never used the silver helmet before he'd started letting Jay ride with him so it had lived in the box it had come in. Now though, as he was using it more and more frequently, Donghae was thinking that he might just throw that box out and hang Jay's helmet from the handlebars with his.

His thoughts didn't distract him from Jay's voice as the younger popstar complained, "But we walked farther to _get_ to the stupid bike than we would have if we walked straight to the café!"

"We aren't going to the café; you need a better breakfast than that. It's the most important meal of the day, hasn't Yuri ever told you that?"

As Jay grumbled incoherently, Donghae fixed his helmet in place and then helped Jay with the straps on his. Then, pulling the helmet's dark visor down over his charge's face, he let Jay hop on in front of him, citing that traffic this early wouldn't be too bad. "So where _are_ we going?" Yuri asked, nervously settling herself on the seat.

"You'll see," Donghae said mysteriously. He didn't wait to see if Jay was going to reply and kicked the beast to life and roared out of the parking garage as his passenger clutched in panic at one of his arms. The overly long sleeves of Jay's hoodie were just long enough to whip against the top of his helmet in the wind, and just short enough to allow Donghae to see as he drove.

Yuri managed to get herself under control fairly quickly, sitting in front on the beast definitely made her feel much more secure than sitting behind Donghae. Even so, she kept one of her arms wrapped around Donghae's, knowing that she could get away with it. She was really crushing hard on him at this point, but allowing herself a little treat was the most she could do about it.

When Donghae brought the bike to a stop, Yuri looked around confused. They were parked in a neat little shopping district, with no restaurants to be seen. "What's this?" she asked, pulling off her helmet.

"I'm school friends with the woman who owns this store," Donghae said, leading Jay inside the ultra-chic clothing store. "HeeJin-sunbae!" he yelled when there was no one to meet them at the door.

In a moment or two a honey-blonde young woman in a flowy knit poncho waltzed into the main room of the store cupping a mug of tea in her hands. "What kind of idiot comes here so early? I don't have any appointments for at least two hours," HeeJin said looking them over. "Donghae, what _have_ you dragged in here?"

"Sunbae, this is Kim Jaebeom," Donghae explained. "He's not allowed in the dorm at the moment, and we have filming today, so I can't just let him wander around looking like this. And you were the first person that came to mind when I was thinking of who could help us out with the situation."

"Well, I'll see what I can do," HeeJin said, looking Yuri over closely as she sipped her tea. "Do you have a particular look you're going for?"

"Not really, we've just got an episode of _Sunny Dae_ coming up today, so I'll leave it up to you," Donghae said, passing custody of Jay over to his senior by literally pushing him across the floor towards her.

Yuri struggled to keep her balance as HeeJin told her, "Come with me, we'll get you all fixed up."

Donghae watched to make sure that Jay went with HeeJin before he stepped back into the entryway to make a few phone calls.

Staring over the racks of clothing, HeeJin waited until Donghae's phone had been pressed to his ear for a few moments before she turned with conspiratorial delight to the person her junior had hauled across town in the early hours of the morning. "Why exactly does my little Donghae think you're a boy?"

The question caught Yuri completely off guard. "Um . . . what?"

"I'm not surprised that you've managed to fool him, he's not exactly the quickest on the uptake, but why would you want to? A pretty girl like you should want to get his attention, you know?"

"That's . . . a long story," Yuri responded, remembering the excuse Dara hand used on Heo-ssi at the salon. It felt like ages ago.

HeeJin wasn't satisfied with that as an explanation, but she switched to a related topic rather than continuing to pursue the base of the story. "I see he's gotten a new motorcycle, did he bring you here on it?"

"Uh, yeah," Yuri mumbled.  
"Now _that's_ interesting," HeeJin murmured, glancing over the clothing racks at Donghae again. He was still absorbed in his phone call. Slowly, and keeping her eyes on Donghae, she said, "I have a sundress that would look absolutely gorgeous on you, but something tells me you'd rather go for the jeans and a jacket look. I think I have something for you to try."

HeeJin led a trek though the store, picking up an article of clothing every once in a while as she made her way to the dressing rooms in the back. "Try a few different combinations of these and come out wearing your favorite, I'll be with Donghae by the mirrors near where you came in, got it?"

Yuri nodded. As HeeJin turned to leave, she called quietly, "You aren't going to tell him, are you?"

"Of course not, love," HeeJin said with a nonchalant sip of her tea. "I won't tell him anything."

As Yuri gave a relieved smile, and headed into the dressing room where HeeJin had tossed her load of clothes, the older woman murmured, "But I might make _him_ tell _me_ a few things."

Heading slowly over towards where Donghae was standing, she heard him say, "Yeah, I got it. Thanks for dealing with him, YeongSaeng. I'm sure he'll be fine by the time you head out for the studio. We'll see you in a few hours."

He hung up, but began dialing again right away. "Hi, this is Hwan Donghae. Yes, I'd like to make a reservation. Private room, sky-scape please. One of every breakfast food you have. We'll be there in twenty minutes."

This time when he hung up he slid his phone into his pocket and stepped back inside the store. His eyes met with HeeJin's curious stare and he gave a sideways grin as he walked over. "New clothes and a breakfast buffet? You're being awfully nice to this kid."

"Jay's my new SeungMi, my latest little project," Donghae explained. "I'm not sure how well I'm doing with it, though. He just seems to keep making more trouble for himself, and he still won't tell me anything."

"Ah, and you've decided to pull out all the stops? Is that why you let him ride your precious motorcycle?"

Donghae ran his fingers through his hair. "YeongSaeng was picking on me for that too. What is so special about my bike?"

"Donghae, I've been asking you that for years, and you _still_ haven't let me ride it," HeeJin replied dryly. "How long have you been letting Jay?"

"It's just more convenient this way," Donghae said with a shrug. "He keeps getting lost and it's faster to get him with the bike than with YeongSaeng's car."

"Why not just buy a leash? No one would put it past you and you know it," HeeJin said with a grin.

Donghae returned her smile. "That is an awfully tempting idea."

HeeJin was going to tease him a little more, but the girl he called Jay was making her way out to the main shop floor. She was wearing light-washed jeans and a white faded print t-shirt under a back vest and a white suit jacket; she was a presentable boy, albeit quite the skinny fellow.

"He needs a hat," Donghae said after a moment of consideration. "Do you have any fedoras lying around?"

HeeJin nodded. She headed into the backrooms of her shop as she called, "What is it with you and hats?"

"Grab a few necklaces while you're back there, too, will ya?"

An incoherent shout, presumably of compliance, drifted back to Donghae's ears. He ignored it as he tweaked the way Jay's new clothes were sitting on his slim frame, he was just so skinny. Yuri was glad for his help; she was wearing a _lot_ of fabric in order to hide her shape and arranging it all in a presentable manner was a tricky task to pull off alone.

A moment later, HeeJin returned with the hat Donghae had requested and an assortment of different necklaces. Yuri spotted one she liked immediately; a thin but durable silver chain connected to a locket in the shape of a gold heart with a silver padlock on it. Her eyes went wide at the sight of it sparkling in the sunlight pouring in from the floor-to-ceiling windows that lined the shop.

She wanted it.

She _really_ wanted it.

But it was far too girly for Jay's tastes, and therefore she couldn't ask for it.

Instead, she picked up another pretty and unique item. Three different chains, of varied type, gauge, and length, looped through a silver rhombus which, though no more than three inches across, had the intricate design of a fleur-de-lys standing out in silver against a milky-white backdrop. It was certainly pretty too, but it was much less girly.

Donghae liked her choice right away. Taking it from her hands and sliding it over her head, he said, "There we go, that looks much better. Kihun would approve."

He noticed however that Jay's eyes kept flitting back to the spread of necklaces HeeJin had brought over, particularly to a very sparkly locket. It wasn't HeeJin's best work, or her best choice for Jay; it was a fairly basic heart shaped design, very feminine, with crystals thrown in for no artistic purpose other than to induce random refractions of light at any angle it was held. Jay's eyes followed the sparkling light as if he had never seen anything like it before.

Picking it up, Donghae inspected it. It was certainly sparkly. And Jay was obviously utterly in love with it. If that didn't prove the singer was ADD, Donghae didn't know what did. "Well, why not?" he said, slipping the sliver chain over Jay's head.

"Actually, that one is part of a set," HeeJin said, lifting another off the spread. The silver chain on this one was slightly more robust, trailing down to connect to a silver key decorated with gold detailing. "If you look closely, the gold ribboning on this one matches the silver details on the heart. And the pattern in the gold on that one mirrors the silver etching on this one. They're a one of a kind pair, I made sure of it; so you can't take that one without taking them both."

Donghae gave a wry smile, taking a hold of the chain she was dangling before him. "Fine, you scam artist. But this one doesn't match what Jay's wearing."

"But it suits what you are," HeeJin mentioned. "And the silver's been specially mixed with a few secret ingredients, you could go swimming with those things on and they still won't tarnish. Oh, and we just got in some new flat-caps, if you're interested, none of my design but they're pretty nice. Take these with you if you're going, they're in the back."

"Making your patron do all the hard work?" he said ruefully with an acknowledging nod. Then Donghae looked to Jay. "I'll be right back, Sunbae probably won't bite, so don't worry." He took the necklace tray from HeeJin and headed deeper into the shop.

The moment he was gone, HeeJin questioned in an excited whisper, "What exactly did you do to make that boy so attuned to a girl's love of sparkles? He usually has trouble picking out something for MinYeon's birthday, even when she comes with him! But he picked up on your little favorite right away."

"What?"

"How'd you do it? I've been trying for _years_ to get him to learn how to take a hint!" HeeJin explained, not alleviating any of Yuri's confusion.

The store owner was about to go on, but just then Donghae popped back into the picture. The key necklace was hanging around his neck and on his head was perched a new plaid flat cap that honestly looked to both Yuri and HeeJin exactly like at least a dozen that he already had.

Waving his credit card in front of HeeJin's face he prompted, "We have reservations, remember."

"Right, wouldn't want to make you late for your little breakfast buffet," HeeJin said, taking the piece of plastic from him and walking over to a counter with a cash register. "Don't you have any real work to do today?"

Donghae slung his arm around Jay's shoulders saying, "Yeah, but thanks to _someone,_ we got up _way_ too early, _and_ got kicked out of the house. So we still have a few hours before filming starts."

Handing Donghae back his card, HeeJin asked, "I don't suppose you want a receipt, or a bag, or anything, do you? I'll send someone to your dorm with Jay's clothes later."

"Thanks Sunbae, we'll drop by again soon," Donghae said, steering Jay out of the shop.

"You'd better!" HeeJin called after the pair.

As she listened to the roar of the motorcycle starting up, she wondered if she'd ever get to properly meet this girl who had taken over her junior's focus so entirely. As it stood, she didn't even know the girl's real name. HeeJin felt like she owed the girl somehow, for getting Donghae to smile like he had when he'd chosen the heart necklace. It was such a rare expression for him to wear, that kind of genuine happiness, and HeeJin was supremely satisfied that he seemed so comfortable with experiencing it. Before he would force himself to be happy, but HeeJin had never once seen him wear such an easy smile; at least not since he'd debuted as a pop star. It was a very nice change.


	10. Of Presents and Kidnappings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The others begin to notice something's up with Jay and Donghae, and a few decide to do something about it...

As HeeJin was thinking over her long relationship with Donghae, the young man in question was currently in the process of hauling Jay through the lobby of one of the tallest sky scrapers in Seoul. It was several floors higher than the 63 Building, though that would always be the iconic 'tallest building'. It was much like how America's Empire State Building wasn't actually all that tall, though its reputation was known across the globe.

Yuri was just so easily distracted. She'd never been inside a building as nice as this one. Even the five star hotel she'd been staying at before this whole Jay-fiasco had gotten rolling wasn't half as nice. Donghae tried to walk straight through, without looking at anything, like this was an everyday experience for him. For Yuri though, it felt like a once in a lifetime sort of deal.

Finally, Donghae managed to drag his newest dongsaeng into the elevator, by physically hauling him along with an arm hooked around his remarkably slim waist. The windows around the vehicle looked out over the Seoul cityscape and Jay was soon completely enthralled with the view as the elevator began to rise higher and higher above the city streets. Donghae watched his awed expression with a small grin. If Jay thought this was impressive, Donghae was looking forward to seeing how he would react when he saw the view from the table he had reserved.

He was not disappointed.

Jay's expression was the happiest he had ever seen it, and that was an extremely gratifying sensation. Jay had his face pressed up against the glass as Donghae slid into the booth that looked out over the city and the waitresses politely bowed out as they finished with the final touches on the breakfast spread Donghae had ordered.

"This is _amazing_!" Yuri couldn't help but repeating herself constantly as she scanned the city far below. It was an absolutely spectacular view.

"You know if you sit over here you can look out the window and eat at the same time," Donghae mentioned, adding, "If you don't eat it soon it'll all get cold."

Moving slowly away from the window, Yuri slid behind the table to join Donghae. The display of food set out on the table was almost as impressive as the view beyond it. Yuri's mouth watered instantly when she spotted a stack of Belgian waffles with a swirl of whipped cream set on top. She hadn't had real waffles in a _very_ long time. And just to make things even more amazing, there was real _butter_ sitting out on the table.

Donghae passed her the plate that had caught her attention as she asked, "How is this even possible?"

"There's more than one perk to being an idol," Donghae explained taking a plate of hotcakes for himself. Before he started eating though, he moved a bowl of fruit to sit beside Jay's plate of waffles. "I brought you here so you'd get a good breakfast remember, so don't just scoop up the whip cream off of everything."

Yuri scooped half of the whipped cream off of her waffles and popped it into her mouth, smiling though the fluff. The rest of it, she spooned into the bowl of fruit. Then she said, "You should follow your own advice, it's not normal to know how to take care of yourself and then blatantly refuse to."

"I'm not refusing to take care of myself, I'm just too busy trying to take care of you to bother with it all," Donghae replied, taking a spoonful of whipped cream covered fruit from the bowl by Jay and tipping it into his mouth.

Between the two of them, enough breakfast foods were consumed to feed an entire eastern European country. They hung out in the small room so high above Seoul for all the time they had to spare before they needed to head out for their variety show filming. Yuri was again in charge of hanging onto the hats as they sped across Seoul on the motorcycle.

Despite Donghae's calm assurances that Chansung would be perfectly fine with what had happened that morning by now, Yuri was very antsy as she followed him inside the studio. The hair and make-up artists fixed them up in a few short minutes and then the pair joined the rest of QuaszauR Action on stage. Yuri was practically hiding behind Donghae as the others noticed their entrance.

"Yah, Jay!" Chansung's voice sounded very angry to Yuri's ears.

Peeking out from behind her designated protector, she asked, "What's up?"

"That stunt you pulled this morning, why'd you do it?"

"Why do you think I did it?" Yuri countered.

Chansung was obviously still quite frustrated. "But JiEun and I . . . we don't—"

"Are you sure? If you really didn't have any feelings for her, would you be thinking half as hard about this?" Yuri asked. "I'm not saying you're in love with the girl, and I'm not going to make you ask her out. I'm just going to make you think about it a little, you have to take a stand here, decide what you _want_ it to be. You can leave things they way they are, if you really want to. But now you also have the option of taking a step forward, the direction you step in, that's up to you."

It was remarkably easy for Yuri to be bold while standing with Donghae between her and the person she was talking to. She saw YeongSaeng grin and wondered if he'd noticed that it was only Donghae that allowed her to talk to her elder like that.

Chansung was quiet the entire day of filming. The MC noticed and poked a little fun at it, but the rest of Action defended his sluggishness as recoil from Jay making him wake up at the crack of dawn. This successfully transferred the teasing attentions to the newest member and Yuri bore it with good humor, it was the least she could do seeing as it was her fault Chansung was frustrated.

At the end of the day, things hadn't gotten much better. Donghae took Yuri home on the motorcycle and she tried to stay out of Chansung's way most of the evening. The girls had gotten home much earlier, but they had thankfully gone on a little shopping trip right before Action had come in.

Yuri got ready for bed pretty early, not wanting to be around when the girls got back in case something happened and she got blamed for it. Before turning in for the night though, she said, "If you feel like taking a step towards her, I recommend flowers. JiEun strikes me as a lily kind of girl."

She headed off to her room, meeting with a surprise in the shape of YeongSaeng leaning outside her door. "I like that necklace, where'd you get it?" he said, jerking his chin at the chain Yuri was playing with. She hadn't taken it off since Donghae had put it over her head.

"You know, I've heard that KyuJeon likes sparkly things even more than I do," Yuri said pointedly. "Is that why you wanna know where you can get one like it?"

YeongSaeng shook his head at her comment. "You're not gonna let that go are you?"

"Nope, not in the foreseeable future, at any rate," Yuri responded.

"First Dara, then Jaebi and SeungMi, and now Chansung and JiEun . . . aren't you done yet? At this rate we'll all be paired up before the music video release."

Yuri grinned. "Doesn't everyone deserve a date to the party?"

"You should take better care of yours," YeongSaeng pointed out. "Or else she might start thinking you don't like her very much."

Yuri's smile broadened, thinking about how basically the only thing she'd talked to her brother about other than the immediate state of his condition had been Dara. "Don't worry about that, I'm sure we'll be together for a very long time. I like her more than any girl I've ever come across, Yuri's already planning our wedding."

"Really now?" YeongSaeng said, with his eyebrow arching curiously.

"Yep, she wants doves and everything," Yuri said, adding, "I'll see you tomorrow."

She headed into her room leaving YeongSaeng stumped at the door. He headed back out into the common room, his mind ticking away at the possibilities. Jay had certainly spoken with conviction about his regard for Dara, and she wasn't in the slightest concerned about how much time her boyfriend was spending with Donghae. In point of fact, she'd been caught encouraging it more than once.

YeongSaeng didn't get it.

As the night progressed, he watched Donghae chatting aimlessly with SooHyun, MinJi was mediating again because any chat those two had would invariably turn into a bought of bickering within ten minutes. Nothing seemed unusual in the least, save for the way Donghae seemed strangely attached to the necklace he was unconsciously playing with throughout the evening.

Chansung had long ago vanished and neither he nor JiEun came back in until after the other girls had gone to bed. When they did return, YeongSaeng, Donghae, and JongHyun noticed their entwined fingers, but with very good judgment guiding their decisions, not one of them commented on it.

JongHyun turned in not long after the newest QuaszauR couple. Donghae went to the kitchen to make tea for the pair that was still up for them to drink as they waited for Mellow's members to return home. "You don't have to stay up too, you know," YeongSaeng called to him from the couch.

"And what kind of person would I be if I left my best friend to wallow in his loneliness?" Donghae responded, bringing two steaming mugs over.

YeongSaeng took the mug Donghae offered him, asking, "That necklace, it's from HeeJin-sunbae's shop, right?"

"You should know, we were her juniors for years and she always brought _us_ her newest designs to review," Donghae said.

"What did she say about you and Jay?"

"Less than you," Donghae replied. "The bike thing seems like the biggest issue for everyone."

YeongSaeng laughed. "That because it's the most unusual thing, the most Jay-exclusive of anything you've done. Well, other than this necklace thing."

"I've never bought anyone else a necklace? So half of Kihun's collection just popped out of thin air?"

"You've never bought a pair before."

"I didn't buy a pair today, Sunbae scammed me into it," Donghae defended.

YeongSaeng just stared at his friend. "Sure, she did."

"You know how she gets." Then hearing a quiet commotion outside the door, Donghae added, "Your favorite little dongsaeng is home. I'm going to bed."

"If Jay was still up you'd watch a movie with us," YeongSaeng complained as Donghae headed to his room, tea still in hand.

Ignoring his friend, Donghae sat leaning up against the wall on his bed. He finished his tea as he listened to the quiet noises of the returning members of Mellow. YoungJae would be heading to bed in a few minutes, Donghae knew. KyuJeon would force YeongSaeng to bed in an hour or so, and then go to bed himself for lack of interest in staying up. Jaebi and Jinki would be up for who knew how long, and Kihun would probably stay up to babysit them into keeping quiet.

Feeling like he could easily stay up along with them, Donghae wondered if what YeongSaeng had said was true. If Jay had wanted to watch a movie with the ballad subgroup, would he have stayed out in the common room? Probably not, but he likely would have sent Jay to bed before turning in himself.

Regardless, he was currently in bed, and he was going to stay there. He finished his tea, and turned out the lights.

When he woke up, the girls of Sweet had already left for their filming, and Jay had already left for his breakfast. He showered lazily, trying to remember why he hadn't last night, and got ready for their last full day of filming for _Sunny Dae_. The key remained in place around his neck; regardless of the fact that he hadn't intended to buy it yesterday, it was actually a pretty fashionable trinket. HeeJin's designs were always fabulous.

Donghae went to look for Jay in his usual café haunt and was surprised to find that he wasn't there. He wasn't too worried though. Jay was easily distracted after all; he'd probably seen a puppy and wandered after it though the park. In fact Donghae wasn't the least bit concerned with Jay's whereabouts until he told the man behind the counter that if a kid of Jay's description came in he should be told that Action's coffee run had been taken care of.

"That kid's always here in the mornings," the owner said with a sort of rueful smile. "He was here already, just chatting away on that cell phone as usual. But about half an hour ago he was hauled off by a guy in a sweatshirt and sunglasses. I was sorta worried, but it seemed like they knew each other."

It took Donghae a long few seconds to process the man's explanation. When he had, the coffee in his hands was all but forgotten. If Dara's cell hadn't been on speed dial, he very well may have simply cast the caffeinated drinks aside. Unfortunately, _Dara_ answered Dara's cell phone. She was in the middle of filming and said she couldn't talk for very long, but Donghae wasn't interested in listening for more than a moment. "You should let Jay hang on to your cell; you know how he's lost his!" Donghae said angrily as he got back inside the dorm.

Dara mumbled a horribly confused response as Donghae hung up and threw the coffees, which miraculously stayed upright, onto the counter as he charged towards Jay's room. It was definitely empty, the bed was made, the light was off, but there was nothing in the way of a note. Checking the common room and the kitchen, Donghae found that there wasn't any indication of Jay having been around of any sort. Frustrated, he answered his phone sharply without checking the caller ID, "What?"

"Now, is that any way to talk to your best friend?"

"YeongSaeng?"

There was a laugh on the other end of the line. "The one and only."

"What do you want?" Donghae grumbled, peering down the hall to see YeongSaeng's closed door.

"I just thought you might be wondering where a cute little, easily kidnapped, singer had gotten off to," YeongSaeng said, the teasing grin unmistakable in his voice.

Donghae went to check his hunch, and found that YeongSaeng's room was indeed empty. "Where are you?"

"We're having fun without you, jealous?"

Gruffly, Donghae responded, "That doesn't answer my question."

"You're pouting right now, aren't you? Don't lie, I know you better than that," YeongSaeng said, enjoying the situation immensely.

"I'm not pouting," Donghae replied immediately. "I'm thinking about how small I can cut the pieces of you up into and still make them all perfect cubes. You just about gave me a heart attack! And Jay _is_ there with you, right?"

"Oh, so worried," YeongSaeng crooned. "Don't fret, your most precious dongsaeng is right here."

"You'd better not make him do anything stupid, or KyuJeon's getting a bottle of ice water down his back every chance I get from now till Christmas!"

YeongSaeng sobered a bit. "You wouldn't dare. You know how easily Kyu gets sick."

"And you know how easily Jay gets lost."

"So, you don't get to play the knight in shining armor this once. Deal with it. I'll have him at the studio in time for filming, don't worry."

"YeongSaeng!" Donghae shouted as the singer hung up on him. He slammed his fist down on the counter in an outpouring of frustration. What YeongSaeng had done was just plain mean.

"What's all the fuss about?" a sleepy Kihun asked, wandering on unsteady feet into the common room. "I haven't seen you this riled up since that reporter made SeungMi cry last year."

"Why are you up so early? You don't have filming for a _long_ while yet," Donghae said, his annoyance creeping into his statement.

"My room is right there. Do you really think I could sleep though all the noise you're making?"

This gave Donghae pause. He suddenly felt quite guilty. "Sorry."

"Are you going to tell me what happened like a normal person, or am I going to have to go all I'm-your-senior on you?"

"YeongSaeng kidnapped Jay."

Kihun laughed. Even through his not-quite-awake-yet observations, Donghae looked more like his best friend had kicked his puppy. "Whatever will you do with yourself? You get to spend an hour not looking after his every move. Enjoy the vacation, I'm sure he'll be back in your custody soon enough."

Donghae just grumbled, taking a hold of one of the coffees he'd brought for Action. After a second of thought, he passed the mocha that should have been Jay's to Kihun. "In case you feel like actually waking up," he said, stalking off to the couch.

Crashing down across the entire length of the elongated chair, Donghae kicked at the remote until the television came on. He proceeded to flip though the channels with the same method as he sipped on his mocha, waiting for a drama or a music show that looked interesting to pop up.

"Hey, I have a question for you," Kihun said, appearing behind Donghae's shoulder. "Have you gotten any work done on that song you were supposed to have finished two weeks ago?"

At Donghae's incoherent grumbles, Kihun went on to say, "JongHyun and YoungJae are starting to get really worried about it. Maybe you should focus on that instead of the trouble that Jay's gotten himself into this time."

"That is a fabulous suggestion," JongHyun commented, coming into the common room ready for the day. "You should follow that advice before YoungJae makes me kill you, he doesn't want it to be quick."

He left Donghae to his grumbling and made his way to the kitchen where an iced latte had his name on it. "Why is Donghae sulking?" he asked with a sigh once he and Kihun were out of easy earshot.

"Why do you think?"

"Jay?"

Kihun nodded as Chansung joined their little morning party. He snagged his usual frappechino, asking, "What's he done now?"

"Nothing really," Kihun explained. "YeongSaeng kidnapped him this morning."

"Did he really?" JongHyun asked, skeptical.

Shrugging, Kihun said, "He seemed really worried about it before he got on the phone with YeongSaeng. I think it's pretty legit."

"But what exactly would YeongSaeng want with Jay this early in the morning?"

Chansung responded, "I think he did it just to freak Donghae out; we should make sure he doesn't go after KyuJeon before we leave for the studio."

Actually, that it had been guaranteed to make his best friend flip out was only part of the reason YeongSaeng had ambushed Jay in the café as he ate breakfast. The other part of the reason was the locket around his neck. "You understand the apparent appeal of sparkly things better than I do," he explained as his zippy BMW jerked to a halt outside the same store Yuri had been dragged to the morning before.

When they went inside, HeeJin was waiting for them. "I was wondering who had made an appointment for so early," she said with a grin. "How have you been YeongSaeng? You don't come visit me nearly often enough."

"Sorry, Sunbae," YeongSaeng said shyly. "I guess the time gets away from me."

"And Jay, wasn't it? It's good to see you again so soon," HeeJin said, eyeing the very familiar chain hanging around the girl's neck. The designer wondered what YeongSaeng knew about the situation. Probably no more than Donghae, seeing as the two could practically read each other's minds. "What can I help you with?"

"I want a necklace for KyuJeon," YeongSaeng said with an assurance he hadn't had a moment earlier.

HeeJin smiled. "I can help with that. And Jay's here because he has good taste? I approve of your choice in wingmen. Follow me."

She led the pair into the back of her shop where a curved glass counter sectioned off a mini jeweler's from the rest of the stylish shop. At least a hundred kinds of necklaces were displayed, and Yuri's eyes were instantly combing over the delicate and intricate patterns of sparkling decorations. While she looked over everything on the shelf nearest to her, HeeJin teasingly asked YeongSaeng, "So are you looking for a set, or is this just going to be a let's-be-friends kind of present?"

YeongSaeng was spared from having to answer by Yuri's sudden exclamation of, "That one!"

The necklace she was indicating was one with a long thin chain that led to a pair of narrow dog tags. They each had a few crystals in them, but the plate silver had been brushed with some sort of hyper reflective coating that was so shiny the crystals almost seemed superfluous. Etched into the silver were words, one on each side of the tags, "Forever, Bright," and "Eternal, Light," two phrases that were just vague enough to have any meaning you wanted them to, and just specific enough to hint at the giver's intentions. And it was sparkly . . . and therefore perfect. If Yuri knew anything about KyuJeon, it was that he would love to have that necklace; that it would be a gift from YeongSaeng would only make it that much more amazing.

"Apparently, you're getting a set," HeeJin remarked, reaching under the glass to get the necklace Yuri had indicated. She also pulled out its companion. On a much shorter chain than the first one, a pair of tags hung that were much wider. And whereas the light refracting coating had been brushed on the first set of tags leaving vertical streaks that bent the light around the words, these tags were washed out with a light capturing coating that had been applied horizontally. The darkened silver made the etchings stand out more. On one side of the tags were images, and short phrases were on the other. On the flip side of a dragon was written "A Ceaseless Shield," and behind a yingyang stood "A Steady Field."

Yuri liked it immediately.

YeongSaeng was a little more skeptical.

"Oh, come on!" Yuri said, "It's perfect for you two! KyuJeon's the innocent, hopeful one, and you protect him and bring him down to earth when his head is in the clouds! And KyuJeon will _love_ the shiny!"

After a moment's consideration, YeongSaeng asked, "You're _sure_ Kyu will like it?"

Yuri nodded furiously, as HeeJin mentioned, "I'm with Jay on this one."

It took another moment of wavering for YeongSaeng to decide to buy the pair. HeeJin and Yuri high fived each other when he whipped out his credit card. Twenty minutes later, the box with KyuJeon's new sparkly was tucked safely in the glove compartment of YeongSaeng's boxy blue BMW, YeongSaeng's was hanging around his neck, and he and Yuri were walking into the _Sunny Dae_ studio.

Donghae refused to even look at YeongSaeng for nearly an hour. During that time he kept Jay glued to his side via a strong arm around his shoulders as he asked about what horrible deeds YeongSaeng had put him up to. Yuri did her best to explain.

Eventually, they reconciled enough to face the day of gaming craziness with the rest of Action. It was in part due to JongHyun giving them both a stern talking to about how stupidly they were both behaving. With neither KyuJeon nor Jay harmed in any way, Donghae and YeongSaeng were convinced to let it slide.

The moment filming was over though, Donghae dragged Jay outside. His motorcycle was waiting with both his and Jay's helmets looped over the handlebars. "Get on," he commanded, his voice slightly terse.

Terrified that Donghae was mad at her for a reason other than going along with YeongSaeng, Yuri did as she was told. Donghae sped across town, pulling up in front of a specialty phone store. "We're getting you a new cell phone, now; and you're _not_ going to lose this one. Do you have any idea how scared I was when I couldn't get a hold of you? What if you had really been kidnapped?"

Yuri didn't know how to respond to his scolding, so she simply sat quietly until he finished. Then she followed him inside where a very chipper sales clerk bore with Donghae's less than friendly instructions. He ended up getting her a camera phone, with video conference and recording capabilities, that had an emergency button that sent the phone's GPS coordinates to the contact listed as the number one speed dial, which he of course programmed to be his phone. Yuri was fine with anything, but this phone was a particularly pretty shade of pale blue and she headed home with him perfectly content. Donghae too left feeling satisfied, having made Jay to swear to pick the phone up immediately if he called.

Overall, he'd been so efficient, being that he'd known exactly which phone he wanted before he entered the shop, that the pair arrived only twenty minutes after the other three members of Action had. When they had gotten home, Mellow had already returned because today they'd only filmed a mini episode. The girls had come back shortly after Mellow's arrival, so Action was the last batch of popstars to make it to the dorm.

Everyone was tiptoeing a bit in regards to not quite knowing how to handle the situation with Jay and Chansung and JiEun, but the tension was completely diffused by JiEun who gave Yuri a tight bear hug and a kiss on the cheek as the little matchmaker was picking through the leftovers of the food Kihun had prepared for dinner. Chansung grumbled incoherently at the action, but his malcontent was replaced by a soft smile when JiEun bounced out of the kitchen to tuck herself against his side on the couch.

Yuri took an early shower and sat in front of the couch as the group watched the latest episodes of a popular drama. Dara sat next to her and at a look from YeongSaeng, Yuri shifted so that her arm was around Dara's shoulders. "I think he's getting suspicious of something," Yuri mentioned during the commercials after Dara asked about the sudden attentiveness in her 'boyfriend'.

After giving YeongSaeng one look, Dara replied, "He's usually the first one to pick up on the kinds of things you've been meddling with. And with you and Donghae basically dating as it is . . . I'd be very surprised if he didn't notice something."

"At this rate we may as well just tell everyone," Yuri grumbled.

Dara shrugged. "We probably could. Everyone likes you, at least as much as they like Jay. They'd probably be fine with it."

"It's certainly tempting, but YoungJae's under enough stress with everything going on," Yuri said. "I don't want to make things worse for him. In just over two weeks, the real Jay will be back in place, and Yuri will vanish for a bit before making a surprise visit to one of the concerts you've got scheduled in the next few months."

Dara was confused. "Two weeks? Is it certain this time?"

Nodding, Yuri explained with a smile, "He's on the mend. Things had kept on seeming like they were getting worse and worse because they couldn't figure out exactly what was wrong, but they've found a cluster of healing micro-fractures or something and he should be good as new in two weeks. He's staying a few extra days, just as a precaution."

"That's great!" Dara exclaimed as quietly as she could manage. In a much more appropriate level of whispering, she added, "Have you told Jaebi or SeungMi yet?"

"Nope, I only talked to Jay this morning about it," Yuri replied. "So what's left for me to face?"

Dara had to think for a second. With the scheduling mess-up some things had been pushed really far back, but there was still plenty to keep them busy while they waited for Jay to return. "Well first up we have a press conference for the release of _HeartQuake_ , and then there's the Music Show performances; Music Bank, M Countdown, Music Core, Inkigayo, you know. After that, I think we might have a fan-meeting scheduled. I'm not really sure, though, because YoungJae and SooHyun handle our scheduling."

"Was the extra day for the music video really that big of a deal? I mean shouldn't they have scheduled you a day off after it anyway?" Yuri was still having trouble rationalizing the amount of work these people were expected to do. She'd once thought all pop stars, especially ones in big boy-band type, systematically manufactured groups, did nothing but look pretty, but really they did more work than most of the working public.

Dara was surprised Yuri didn't know more about the industry, seeing as her brother was involved in it and nothing they did was kept hidden from the fans. "We're in the final stages before we release a new album; time off _now_ is something no one expected. Even the schedules with the variety shows are pretty light! Usually we'd be doing these during the time we have music show performances, but since everything else was shuffled around we're doing them early. I know in about a month we've got a tour to start preparing for, but really that's not something we're dealing with right now. Basically, we're almost on vacation!"

Watching the two whispering throughout the entire evening, Donghae's satisfied smile was spotted by everyone. It would seem that he'd gotten Jay to open up to at least one person in QuaszauR. "Now all you have to do is get Dara to tell you what's bothering him, and you can wrap your little project up for the year." YeongSaeng said when he cornered Donghae in the kitchen as he was whipping up a few batches of hot chocolate.

"Dara will tell me if she thinks she needs to, but I don't think she's going to," Donghae replied. "Jay trusts her too much."

YeongSaeng grinned. "I didn't think it'd be that easy to make you give it up. So what's your plan? To just keep waiting?"

"What else can we really do?" Donghae asked, passing his friend two of the hot chocolates. He grabbed three mugs himself and headed out back to the common room. Two of the mugs made their way into Dara and Jay's hands, while Donghae announced, "The hot chocolate's ready, but if you want it you have to get it yourself."

KyuJeon was about to jump to his feet, eager for the sweet drink when YeongSaeng placed a mug in front of his face, complete with a swirl of whipped cream as a topping. Donghae watched the pair of them, and watched Jay watching them. He was going to have to keep a close eye on his little charge, knowing that when Jay got a little too eager to get his friends their happy ending he went a little overboard.

Eventually Jay was sent off to bed, a while after Dara and the other girls had turned in for the night. Most of Action joined him, as they too had a fairly early morning. Donghae gave YeongSaeng a look, but he knew that the singer would be up for another few hours.

Donghae was half expecting him and KyuJeon to _still_ be up when he wandered out of his room the next morning. The girls were already gone, as per usual, and so was Jay. This time Donghae didn't wait around to see if Jay would be coming back from the café unprompted before he went out to meet him.

When the man behind the counter told him a similar story as he had the day before, Donghae rubbed his temples in frustration. He was going to kill YeongSaeng for this. Today though, Jay had a cell phone; and Donghae called it before he'd even finished paying for coffee.

"Hiya!" Jay said into the phone immediately.

Pleased that he had at least followed instructions, Donghae asked, "Where are you?"

"I'm—," Jay started, there was a bit of a scuffle and then KyuJeon's voice filtered though the line, "He's with me, and we should be back soon. Don't worry!"

KyuJeon hung up the phone and handed it back to Jay as he dragged his friend into the store that YeongSaeng had brought him to on a few occasions in the past. Yuri for her role in all this was, was beginning to get very used to being dragged through the door of HeeJin-ssi's shop during the early hours of the morning.

"Good morning KyuJeon," HeeJin said softly when the pair made their way inside. "I haven't seen you in a long time, how have you been?"

"I'm fine HeeJin-noonim," he replied shyly. "How are you?"

With a smile in Yuri's direction, HeeJin said, "I've been pretty busy lately, but it's nothing too difficult. You and Jay seem to have the hard work around here."

"You've been here before?" KyuJeon questioned his companion.

Nodding, Yuri replied, "Donghae brought me here a few days ago."

"Why?"

"You weren't awake yet, but when I sorta pushed Chansung and JiEun . . . I got kicked out of the house," Yuri admitted. "Donghae brought me here to get ready for filming, since I couldn't get ready back at the dorm."

"Speaking of that little encounter, how has everything turned out?" HeeJin asked.

KyuJeon laughed. "Jay's our resident matchmaker. Chansung and JiEun started dating that day," he said.

"And is there a reason you're tagging along with QuaszauR's Cupid today?"

KyuJeon ducked his head a bit, working out how to phrase it. Yuri rescued him, or dug his grave if you chose to think of it that way, by saying, "It's for YeongSaeng, with the release conference coming up soon, KyuJeon wanted to get him a present."

"Ah, I see," HeeJin said with a knowing look. "Are you thinking of a trinket something, like jewelry or do you want to get him a new pair of sunglasses?"

"We're gonna go with jewelry," Yuri decided for them.

HeeJin arched an eyebrow, knowing how YeongSaeng had already bought a set of necklaces. Apparently, he hadn't given KyuJeon his necklace yet, because KyuJeon didn't protest at all. That this wasn't a thank-you-for-the-gift gift made HeeJin smile. The sudden desire must have been prompted by Donghae's necklace purchase; half of which, HeeJin could see hanging around Jay's neck.

"Right this way then," HeeJin said, leading Yuri back to the jewelry counter for the second time in 24 hours. Rather than heading straight for the necklaces like she had last time, Yuri looked towards the rings at the other end of the glass counter.

She saw a dozen swirling designs that she would have loved to get, but it took a few minutes before she spotted something that was suitable for KyuJeon and YeongSaeng. HeeJin pulled it out at her request, along with its partner.

The rings were both rather wide bands of a silvery metal brushed over lightly with a black coating that gave it a distinctly masculine and edgy feel, even though each had a few crystals embedded in the metal. There was something strongly magnetic in the cores of the rings, because delicate chains linked up to it securely from a bracelet without being permanently attached. One bracelet was a series of bangles of the same dark washed silver interconnected by a few thin strips of black leather, while the other was a thick black band of leather punctuated with blackened silver studs with a thin chain between them. They were perfect. The rings matched almost exactly and could be worn without the bracelets, and with the bracelets the two parts were dissimilar enough to be a set of non-related purchases.

KyuJeon had misgivings, but after having gone through the routine of convincing someone to buy a particular piece of jewelry once already, Yuri simply had HeeJin ring it up as she gave a general breakdown of what made the set so suitable for the pair. Ten minutes later, after a few more moments of chatter with HeeJin, whom Yuri was growing to like more and more, KyuJeon slipped into the driver's seat of his flashy orange sports car with the little blue bag tucked securely in his pocket.

The pair got back to the dorm just in time to let KyuJeon slip into his room with only half of Action knowing that he'd been out and about already. Between Donghae and Jay, JongHyun was convinced to keep it quiet from YeongSaeng. He made sure to impress upon Donghae, however, that his cooperation was a good-faith trade for Donghae's work on the song he was supposed to have finished weeks ago.

"It has to be done _before_ the next official concert," JongHyun warned.

"I swear, I'll have a full draft for you next week," Donghae promised in exchanged for JongHyun's vow to keep quiet.

Chansung came out to the kitchen in time to hear that something was up, but since Jay was involved he really didn't think he wanted to know and he refused to ask any questions on the subject. When a groggy YeongSaeng made his way out, blindly reaching for caffeine, it was time for Action to head out to their final day of filming for _Sunny Dae_. On the motorcycle ride there, Yuri asked Donghae about the song he was writing; or at least was supposed to be writing.

"I still haven't started it yet," Donghae admitted with a sheepish grin that was hidden by his helmet. "I really had intended to, by now I honestly thought it would be almost done, but it's just gotten away from me."

Yuri gave him an admonishing look, one that filtered into her voice so as to be noticed even though he couldn't see it. "You really shouldn't let anything get in the way of that! What about your fans? I'm sure they're going to be disappointed that your song isn't on the album."

"Says the man whose solo is only on the album because I pulled all-nighters for a week with YeongSaeng to get the music just right," Donghae replied, ruffling Jay's hair as he pulled his helmet off when they pulled up in front of the studio. Jay's expression was filled with concern at the fact that Donghae had abused himself so thoroughly for a song that wasn't even his. "Come on. It's our last day, which means there're doughnuts."

The bribe had the desired effect, getting Jay to stop worrying about Donghae's well-being and head into the studio with a chipper bounce to his stride.

As Donghae had guessed he would, Jay went straight for the double chocolate doughnuts; snatching two before the rest of QuaszauR Action had even realized they were there. She'd always loved doughnuts and since coming to face Korea's rather interesting menu for so much longer than she'd expected to was less than thrilling, having the familiar taste of the dry chocolaty cake in her mouth was a welcome reminder of the United States. Yuri brought one of her treats to Donghae, but she was reluctant to hand it over; it was a vibe that made itself apparent though subtleties in her actions. Donghae solved the problem by ordering YeongSaeng to grab him a powered sugar instead, much to Jay's puppy-like pleasure.

The finale of Action's time on _Sunny Dae_ was to be a special episode. Two female members of the crew were brought on as guest hosts, each with a plastic rose in her hand for the duration of the show. At the end, it was to be given to the member that had most gained their favor during the episode. Additionally, aside from the little competition between members, and the usual string of games, there was a segment where each member was categorized based on fan submissions.

Leader JongHyun was the strong and silent type, which fit what the other members thought of him; sweet and supporting, but always acting form the shadows. Donghae wanted to contradict a bit of the claim, citing JongHyun's strong-arming to get his job done; but really, JongHyun was a big softie and Donghae would be surprised if he actually carried through on one of his threats.

Chansung was the sweet one, shyer than the rest, and the slowest to mess with the status quo. Yuri agreed vehemently with this, telling the story about how Jay had needed to push him and JiEun in order to get them together. This got Jay a lot of support from the staff, a glare from Chansung, and a dozen more questions from MC DaeSung. Jay's own girlfriend wasn't explicitly revealed, being that at this point his more-than-friends-bond with Dara was an understood fact, but his part in the development of Jaebi and SeungMi's relationship was.

YeongSaeng was the smart one, sensible at all times. Donghae tried to get that overturned, but the approval of the others drowned him out. Chansung helped the leader with the administrative aspect of Action, but it was YeongSaeng that helped JongHyun manage the band's members. His wisdom and straightforward guidance could pull even the craziest member back down to earth, and raise the spirits of anyone feeling overwhelmed in the same instant. Donghae spent the entire segment grumbling about how YeongSaeng was really just an idiot in Einstein's clothing.

For his part, Donghae was labeled the funny one. He was the group's mood setter; be it focusing the members on the concert, rehearsal, album preparations, or goofing off to keep the strain of the immense pressure they were all under from destroying their health, his role was deemed the most important. He mothered them all, keeping their spirits up, and their bodies healthy, as he worked himself to death for his fans. JongHyun proclaimed that the singer probably would have died years ago, had YeongSaeng not been there to knock some sense into him, as he worked overwhelmingly hard to give back to his fans. And now that YeongSaeng had Jay helping him, JongHyun was almost confident that Donghae was actually healthy.

As maknae, Jay was automatically the cute one. DaeSung wasn't so sure how much Jay deserved the title of cutest member, regardless of how young he was. YeongSaeng's face was very round, a traditionally cute characteristic. And his sweet smile was almost puppy-like in its adorably mischievous turn. The female guest hosts however, defended the fans' positions. YeongSaeng was much more suave than cute, they claimed. If anyone in Action could be considered cuter than Jaebeom, it would have to be Donghae. His innate sweetness and trend of adorable immaturity the moment he wasn't required to focus did lend itself to the idea of cuteness.

Donghae flatly refused to accept this. He asked that the box of doughnuts be brought over. Yuri was excited at the prospect of getting another chocolaty doughnut, a bouncy state of mind that was easily picked up on by everyone in the studio. Donghae knew there were only two left and he gave them to each of the female hosts. Yuri's reflexive pout at the action quickly resolved any remaining doubts that Jay was the cute one, and her pout that she'd been caught pouting at something so small as not getting a chocolate doughnut prompted her to latch onto Donghae's arm and hide her face from the camera, which in turn melted every heart in the studio and audience alike. Needless to say, both female guest hosts gave Jay half of their chocolate doughnuts very quickly.

At the end of the episode, Jay also received both of the guest hosts' roses. He was also subject to a severe bout of flirting from the young women as the crew cleaned up, which Jay apparently could hardly recognize, let alone deal with. Yuri had never been flirted at by a girl before, and though it was obvious to everyone but her, the attempts she made to maintain small talk were only making things worse. Donghae swooped in to Jay's rescue, wrapping an arm around his trim waist and physically lifting him away from the girls in one fluid motion. "Sorry, ladies, he's mine for the afternoon," he called over his shoulder as he carried Jay outside with ease, draped over his arm like a limp puppy.

The rest of action was waiting for them. "It seems a shame to go home so early," Chansung said, speaking what was on everyone's mind.

With a sly grin, Donghae suggested, "There's an amusement park nearby, and since it's a weekday, I'm sure it won't be too busy."

It took a moment, but soon everyone was thrilled by the prospect. Even JongHyun was excited. Despite that, he cautioned, "Hats and sunglasses, and we don't split up."

"Perfect!" Donghae said, tossing Jay's helmet to him. "Let's go!"

The amusement park wasn't half as empty as Donghae had thought it would be, but at this point very little concern surfaced in reaction. Everyone was too excited. With their 'disguises' in place the five made their way inside. Seeing as more than half of the rides they set foot on were roller-coasters that prohibited both, hats and sunglasses, the disguises weren't worth very much anyway.

They were easily recognized. However, either their fans had chosen to be very polite, or they were constantly moving around too much for the fans to keep up, because they weren't bothered by anyone coming up to ask for autographs; even as fans could be easily heard squealing throughout the park at their every move.

Around four, QuaszauR Mellow got out of their half day of filming; they had another round in the morning, but a party for the second to last filming day still seemed fitting. With a few quick calls, the five ballad singers joined the others at the amusement park. The girls' last day was a full one, so they were doomed to merely hear the stories of the boys' day at the park. The boys were a bit saddened by that fact, but since they were already here . . .

The ten of them stayed together, making them even more recognizable. Still, the fans were polite enough to let them have their fun. Go-kart racing, indoor ice-skating, and a dozen little carnival games kept them occupied for another few hours. When the rest were about ready to go, KyuJeon announced a strong desire to ride the Ferris wheel.

YeongSaeng of course, volunteered to go with him. Yuri thought it would be fun too and she and KyuJeon went skipping off towards the ride as the others debated. Donghae was staying, predictably. Jinki and Jaebi were both for the idea and went racing off after KyuJeon and Jay immediately. When they caught up, the four continued their prance. JongHyun decided that he'd stay behind too, mostly because his car was the only one big enough to take four passengers. YoungJae and Kihun drove their own cars home, with Chansung hitching a ride with YoungJae.

YeongSaeng, Donghae, and JongHyun joined the other four in line just as Jay jumped on top of Jinki and flipped over to land in a slide with jazz hands to the delight of a little girl in line in front of the group. Jinki and Jay then proceeded with KyuJeon and Jaebi to choreograph a little dance to the sound of the amusement park's jingle. It was good to see Jay joking around, especially with Jinki.

Donghae had been really worried about the two of them for a while, as they had seemed so close until Jay's debut concert. After that they appeared to have a falling out and hadn't so much as spoken to each other for a week. Donghae had never been able to figure out if they had argued, but now they seemed to be almost as good friends as they had been before.

As Donghae reflected on that fact the line before him dissolved and suddenly it was their turn. YeongSaeng, KyuJeon, Jay, and Donghae filled the first box; and Jinki, Jaebi and JongHyun took the second.

The view from the top was incredible. The sun was just beginning to set and the golden light bounced off every glass surface in the city. Their ride took them around a few times, but when it finished, KyuJeon and Jay still hadn't had enough. Donghae and YeongSaeng, predictably, were dragged along again. JongHyun, Jinki, and Jaebi opted to wait by the car as the other four went around once more.

This time, Yuri latched onto YeongSaeng's arm and dragged him away from the others to the great surprise of all. Yuri managed to get YeongSaeng and herself into a gondola all alone before KyuJeon and Donghae even realized what was happening. Once inside she asked the question that had been bothering her all day, "Why haven't you given KyuJeon the necklace yet?"

It caught YeongSaeng a bit off guard, but he was able to answer fairly quickly. "I'm trying to wait for a good opportunity."

Yuri gave him an exasperated look. "Because they roll around every few days."

"Well, if I randomly just give him a necklace, don't you think he'll be a bit suspicious? I don't want him to think I'm giving it to him so he won't be mad for something else," YeongSaeng tried to reason.

With exasperation still clearly in her eyes, Yuri countered, "And what could you possibly have done that he would be mad at?"

"KyuJeon can sometimes be unreasonable, you should know that," YeongSaeng replied.

"Only around you, and only because he wants your attention," Yuri retorted.

With a small smile, YeongSaeng asked, "Then what would you have me do? Tell him I'm giving him an early birthday present?"

"Of course not, that's ridiculous," Yuri scoffed. Then an idea came to her. She was sure that KyuJeon would be furious with her for it though. She was thinking of not pressing it, but she really did want to see KyuJeon and YeongSaeng make some progress before she had to trade back with her brother. "Give it to him tomorrow morning and tell him you got it for him because it's Tuesday," she said.

"Why? Tomorrow's not Tuesday."

"Exactly."

"I don't get it, what does the day have to do with anything if it's not Tuesday?"

With a trickle of worry creeping into her mind, Yuri said, "Don't worry, KyuJeon will understand."

"Now I'm even more confused. And slightly worried," YeongSaeng admitted. "Have you talked to him about this already?"

"It may have come up once or twice in round-about conversation," Yuri admitted

Sighing heavily, YeongSaeng asked, "If I tell him that, will he get mad?"

"Not at you," Yuri said with certainty as their ride came to an end.

Meanwhile, KyuJeon and Donghae had spent a full rotation of the Ferris wheel trying to figure out what Jay had wanted with YeongSaeng. By the second time around they could actually focus on having a conversation with each other, though it was about YeongSaeng and Jay. Donghae thought he knew what was going on, but he was sure that neither of the two popstars would want him to tell KyuJeon.

KyuJeon didn't notice Donghae's evasions too much, because he was trying to steer the conversation away from YeongSaeng anyway. He wanted to know about Jay. But he was too shy to directly ask his hyung about it like he'd asked Jay. Instead he opted for the non-subtle, subtle route. "I wonder why Jay keeps running off lately," he said, watching Donghae carefully.

"He's given me more than a few heart-attacks this week," Donghae admitted.

"What's up with him? Has he said anything to you?"

With a long sigh, Donghae said, "It's Jay, do you really think he's told anyone what's going on?"

"Well, he seems really attached to you," KyuJeon mentioned.

Donghae rolled his lips over his teeth in something between a smirk and an expression of chagrin. "I'm trying. He's such a sweet kid, and he has this way of doing things that makes everything in the world seem like it's just a little problem. I can honestly say I've never been more comfortable around anyone, except YeongSaeng. He's got that soft but strong vibe that makes everything seem like it'll turn out okay in the end. I just wish I could get him to open up a bit more to us all. He makes us all feel comfortable, but he always seems so stiff."

For KyuJeon, that just about answered his question, but he wanted it in black and white. "So you _do_ like him," KyuJeon pushed.

"Of course, he's my bandmate," Donghae said simply, causing KyuJeon to suddenly feel the urge to hang his head in exasperation. "Even if I didn't like him that much at first, I would have needed to get to liking him; but he's really grown on me recently."

If this is how everyone Jay had helped had behaved, KyuJeon was willing to take a little leniency in regards to how Jay had reacted to it. Even KyuJeon was starting to get frustrated. He wondered how to rephrase the question to make it more obvious, while still keeping a level of respect in his words. "You take really good care of him," KyuJeon mentioned.

"If I don't, who will? I doubt YeongSaeng has the time deal with _his_ messes when he's busy chasing after you," Donghae replied.

KyuJeon was prevented from trying another foray by the fact that the ride came to an end. He and Donghae slid outside without any hesitation. They fell back to the sides of the people they actually wanted to spend the early evening with, and everything went back to the way it had been before Jay dragged YeongSaeng off.


	11. Cheat Sheet

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Character Names & Subgroup Cheat Sheet

Here's a little cheat-sheet reminder for you about all the Idols attached to QuaszaR! 

 

 

** QuaszauR Line-up **

 

 **Kim YoungJae** \- Leader

Sub Group - Mellow (leader)

 **Lee SooHyun** \- Secondary Leader

Sub Group - Sweet (leader)

 **Choi JongHyun** \- Lead Dancer

Sub Group - Action (leader)

 

 

 **Park Chansung** \- Dancer/vocals

Sub Group - Action (lead vocals)

 **Hwan DongHae** \- Vocals/composer/dancer

Sub Group - Action

 **Park YeongSaeng** \- high vocals

Sub Group - Action

 **Kim JaeBeom (Jay)** \- Dance/vocals (newest member/Yuri's brother)

Sub Group - Action

 **Kim Yuri** \- Replaces brother

 

 

 **Song JinKi** \- vocals

Sub Group - Mellow (lead vocals)

 **Kang Kihun** \- High vocal

Sub Group - Mellow

 **Heo KyuJeon** \- dancer

Sub Group - Mellow

 **Cho JaeJin (Jaebi)** \- Dancer/vocals (true maknae)

Sub Group - Mellow

 

 

 

 **Choi JiEun** \- Dancer/vocals

Sub Group - Sweet (lead dancer)

 **Lee SeungMi** \- high vocals

Sub Group - Sweet

 **Jung Dara** \- rapper/dancer

Sub Group - Sweet

 **Ahn MinJi** \- Dancer (maknae mock 2, youngest girl)

Sub Group - Sweet

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> This is a fic that got WAY out of control.
> 
> It was supposed to be a one-shot.  
> 100k later it still didn't have any actual chapters.  
> I've edited it to make chapters work a little better, but it's still probably a bit rough.  
> ^_^' Sorry about that, and I hope y'all can enjoy it anyway!


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